


^"^u-^w 






::^u 



'^^SW^US^^ 






A :£1\ iLii VWVUM^, m, 









iiilliiill 





















£*r«M 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. 



PRESENTED BY 



UNITED STATES 01 AMEEIOA. 



WDW} 






iMMyj^ ,v,v 






v ^,^;^i 



fcy^WWv^. 



V/ v \> tfHW^ c^ 



iWQBflSCWSpi 






"TrW 






w y *.■■■• J .V 






y, y yg y - 



VVvyyyjvjj^w 



i.; -- _ s-> "-' ^- fv-A 



^xj^w9^& 






wwPBmMia 









Yr*yi I LA r 












wbv y v, ,-V j; x' 



':. v i,ll (, VU'WilU: ;Wi.A I. 



^s^^v^ 






iW&'S 



>^uyo^2^H&«; 



&&& 



W.Vvi'J® 






^&fW* 






\\. Yv 









4fipy% 



ymJ^hmt 



mzrw 















tfv KvJV^H^ 



v^.,Yv ; 



iwy,y K wU! 



i^vWW 



^ i «* 

c ^iii^v$yi 



s> - - \> • v , v 



/awgW^i 



W^f 





















O' V v 



;&dY$' 









Battle of Oriskany : 

ITS PLACE IN HISTORY. 



By ELLIS H. ROBERTS. 



JL^T ADDBESS 

AT THE 

Centennial Celebration. 



THE 



Battle of Oriskany : 



ITS PLACE IN HISTORY. 



AN ADDRESS 



Centennial Celebration, 



August 6, 1877. 



By ELLIS H. ROBERTS. 



UTICA, N. Y. 
Ellis H. Roberts & Co., Book and Job Printers, 60 Genesee Street. 

1877. 



o 



THE BATTLE OF ORISKANY. 



The fault; attaches to each of us, that the share of the 
valley of the Mohawk in the events which gave birth 
and form to the American republic, is not better under- 
stood. Our prosperity has been so steady and so broad 
that we have looked forward rather than backward. 
Other States, other parts of the country, have been re- 
calling the scenes which render their soil classic, and 
from the end of the century summoning; back the men 
and the deeds of its beginning. A duty long neglected 
falls upon those whose lot is cast here in Central New 
York. These hills and these valleys in perennial elo- 
quence proclaim the story of prowess and of activity. 
To translate from them, to gather the scattered threads 
of chronicle and tradition, to hold the place that has been 
fairly won by the Mohawk valley, is a task which has 
yet been only partially done. Some time or other it 
will be fulfilled, for achievements have a voice which 
mankind delights to hear. The jnivilege of this hour 
is to revive the memories and to celebrate the heroism 
of the battle of Oriskany. 1 Without anything of 
narrow local pride, with calm eye and steady judgment, 
not ashamed to praise where praise was earned, nor 
unwilling to admit weakness where weakness existed, 
let us recall that deadly tight, and measure its signifi- 
cance and its relations to the continental strife in which 
our republic was born. 

1. See Appendix, p. 44, for tlie derivation and orthography. 



THE SITUATION BEFOEE THE BATTLE. 

For in the autumn of 1777, it was clear that the 
American colonies were fighting not for rights under 
the British crown, but for free and separate life. The 
passionate outbursts of 1775 had discharged their thun- 
der and lightning. The guns of Lexington had echoed 
round the world. The brilliant truths of the Declara- 
tion had for a year blazed over the battle-fields of the 
infant nation. They had been hallowed by defeat ; for 
Montgomery had fallen at Quebec, Sullivan had met 
with disasters at Flatbush, the British occupied New 
York, and Washington had retreated through the 
Jerseys, abandoning Long Island and the Lower Hud- 
son. Sir Guy Carleton had swept over Lake Cham- 
plain, fortunately not holding his conquest, and Bur- 
goyne had captured the noted stronghold Ticonderoga. 
But the nation had also tasted victory. In the dread 
December days of 1776, Washington had checked the 
tide of despair by his gallant assault at Trenton, and 
General Howe had been forced to concentrate his army 
against Philadelphia. Boston had seen its last of the 
soldiers of George the Third. Better than all, the 
States were everywhere asserting their vitality. Far- 
off Tennessee indignant at his use of Indians in war, had 
taken sides against the British king. Georgia had 
promised if Britain destroyed her towns, that her peo- 
ple would retire into the forests. The splendid defense 
of Fort Moultrie had saved Charleston and proved 
South Carolina's zeal for the republic which it was 
afterwards to assail. Virginia had furnished many of 
the civil leaders and the commander-in-chief to the re- 
public, and had formally struck the British flag which 



bad floated over its State bouse. If Maryland hesitated, 
New Jersey joined bands witb Pennsylvania and New 
York, and all New England bad pledged itself to tbe 
contest which it bad begun. In New York as well as 
in other States, a State constitution bad been adopted, 
and George Clinton bad been inaugurated as Governor 
at tbe close of that disastrous July. Tbe tide of battle 
surged wildest in that critical summer in Nortbern New 
York. So in trying hours, tbe blood courses most 
swiftly at tbe beart. Great results were expected. 
Tbe Britisb fleet sailed up tbe Hudson. A British 
general, favorite of the muses, and in after years notabh^ 
fortunate,* came down Lake Chamjjlain to meet it at 
Alban)'. A column formidable in its elements and led 
by a commander chosen by the king for tbe purpose, 
was to come from the north and west to complete the 
irresistible triad. Tory bands were ravaging tbe coun- 
try southward in Schoharie and towards Kingston, f 
Cause of alarm there was to the patriots; ground of 
confidence to the invaders. Tbe war bung on tbe 
events in this field ; and the scales of destiny inclined 
to tbe side of tbe kino;. 

Tbe combatants bad learned to understand each other. 
The burning words of Junius bad long rankled in the 
British mind. Burke's magnificent plea for conciliation 
had borne no fruit. Chatham had two years before 
"rejoiced tbat America bad resisted," and told the 
ministers they could not conquer America, and cripple 
as be was be cried out: "I mio-ht as soon tbink of driv- 



* General Burgoyne before the war sat in Parliment. He was agreeable 
and clever as a dramatic poet. He became commander-in-chief of the British 
forces in Ireland. 

f J. R. Simms has clearly fixed the date of these raids, in the summer of 
1777, (see his History of Schoharie county and Border Wars of New York,) 
and not in 1778, as stated in Campbell's Annals of Tryon county. 



6 

ing the colonies before me with this crutch ;" but in the 
next spring he still clung to the hope that Britain 
would yet prevent separation. The insolence of Lord 
North had shattered the unanimity which King George 
boasted the Declaration had produced, and Fox had 
said if the dilemma were between conquering and 
abandoning America, he was for abandoning America. 
The citizens of London had appealed to the King to 
stop the "unnatural and unfortunate war." General 
Howe had already written to his brother, (April 2, 
1777,) "my hopes of terminating the war this year are 
vanished." In Britain, wise men had learned that the 
war would be desperate. In America the magnitude 
of the contest was felt. The alliance of France had 
been diligently sought, and LaFayette had arrived and 
been appointed major general, while Kalb's offer 
had not been accepted. More than one general had 
been tried and found wanting in capacity, and the jeal- 
ousies of the camp were working mischief. The finan- 
cial burdens weighed heavily, and paper money had 
begun its downward career. Criticism of Washing- 
ton's slowness was heard, and speculators were making 
profit of the country's necessities. Bounties had been 
offered and the draft employed for raising troops. The 
loyalists were making the most of the hardships. The 
land was rocking in "times that try men's souls." The 
earlier part of the military campaign of 1777 had 
not been propitious to the patriots. The dark- 
ness rested especially on New York. Burgoyne 
had penetrated from Canada to the Hudson with 
the loss of only two hundred men. Clinton from the 
bay threatened to advance up the river, as he finally 
did, but fortunately not at the critical moment. The 
success of the corps moving inland from Oswego, would 
shatter the center of the American position. 



THE OBJECT OF THE CAMPAIGN OF 1777. 

The fight was for the continent. The strategy em- 
braced the lines from Boston to the mouth of the Ches- 
apeake, from Montreal even to Charleston. Montgom- 
ery's invasion of Canada, although St. John's and Mon- 
treal were taken, failed before Quebec, and the retreat of 
the American forces gave Burgoyne the base for his 
comprehensive campaign. Howe had been compelled 
to give up New England, which contained nearly one- 
third of the population and strength of the colonies. 
The center of attack and of defense was the line of 
New York and Philadelphia. From their foothold at 
New York, on the one hand, and Montreal on the other, 
the British commanders aimed to grind the patriots of 
the Mohawk valley between the upper and nether mill- 
stones. The design was to cut New England off from 
the other States, and to seize the country between the 
Hudson ami Lake Ontario as the vantage ground for 
sweeping and decisive operations. This was the pur- 
pose of the wedge which Burgoyne sought to drive 
through the heart of the Union. In the beginning of 
that fateful August, Howe held all the country about 
New York, including the islands, and the Hudson up 
to Peekskill; the British forces also commanded the 
St. Lawrence and Lake Ontario, and their southern 
shores, finding no opposition north of the Mohawk and 
Saratoga lake. The junction of Howe and Burgoyne 
would have rendered their armies masters of the key 
to the military position. This strip of country from 
the Highlands of the Hudson to the head of the Mo- 
hawk, was the sole shield against such concentration of 
British power. Once lost it would become a sword to 
cut the patriots into fragments. They possessed it by 
no certain tenure. Two months later Governor Clinton 



and General Putnam lost their positions on the Hud- 
son. Thus far Burgoyne's march had been one of eon- 
quest. His capture of Ticonderoga had startled the 
land. The frontier fort at the head of the Mohawk was 
to cost him the column on whose march he counted 
so much. 

FORT STANWIX AND ITS GARRISON. 

Fort Stanwix 2 (known in this campaign to the pat- 
riots as Fort Schuyler,) was built in 1758 against the 
French. The next year, the French met with those 
disasters which in 1760, gave Canada to the English, 
and thereafter Fort Stanwix served only for pur- 
poses of Indian trade, and as a protection to the carry 
between the Mohawk and Wood Creek. It had been 
a favorite place for peaceful meeting with the Indians. 3 
Naturally it had lost its military strength, and when 
in April, 1777, Colonel Gansevoort occupied it with the 
third regiment of the New York line, it was sadly out 
of repair. The plans for its reconstruction were yet in 
progress when St. Leger appeared before it. But care 
and labor had been so effectual that the broken walls 
had been restored, and the ruins which the invader 
came to overrun had given place to defenses too strong 
for his attack. Col. Peter Gansevoort, who was in 
command, was a native of Albany, now twenty-eight 
years of age. He had been with Montgomery before 
Quebec, and there won his rank as colonel. His con- 
duct here was admirable. The courage of youth did 
not prevent on his part a wisdom worthy of much 
riper years. With him as Lieutenant Colonel was 
Marinus Willett, a native of New York city, aged 
thirty-seven, trained in the French war and the inva- 
sion of Canada, a dashing soldier, ready for any adven- 

2. See Appendix, p. 44. 3. See Appendix, p. 44. 



9 

ture, and shrewd in all the ways of border war. He 
had been in the expedition for which the fort had been 
erected, and now helped to save it. The Chaplain of 
the garrison was Samuel Kirkland, that sainted mis- 
sionary to the Six Nations, to whom Central New York 
is so much indebted in every way. He was probably 
absent at the time, on service for the Congress, for he 
was trusted and employed on important missions by 
the patriot leaders.* 

The garrison consisted of seven hundred and fifty 
men. It was composed of Gansevoort's own regiment, 
the Third New York, with two hundred men under 
Lieutenant Colonel Mellon of Colonel Wesson's regi- 
ment of the Massachusetts line. Colonel Mellon had 
fortunately arrived with a convoy of boats tilled with 
supplies, on the second of August, when the enemy's 
tires were already in sight only a mi'e away. This was 
the force with which Gansevoort was to hold the fort. 

The British advance appeared on the second of Au- 
gust. The investiture was complete on the fourth. 
The siege was vigorously prosecuted on the fifth, but 
the cannon "had not the least effect on the sod-work of 
the fort," and "the royals had only the power of 
teazing."f 

st. legee's invasion. 

The corps before Fort Stanwix was formidable in 
every element of military strength. The expedition 
with which it was charged, was deemed by the war 
secretary at Whitehall of the first consequence, and it 
had received as marked attention as any army which 

*See Lothrop's Life of Kirkland, pp. 238, 245. Lectures by William 
Tracy, p. 14. 

f St. Leger's Narrative in Burgoyne's Defense, given in the tentli section 
of this Appendix, p. 48. 



10 

King George ever let loose upon the colonists. For its 
leader Lieutenant Colonel Barry St. Leger had been 
chosen by the king- himself, on Burgoyne's nomination. 
He deserved the confidence, if we judge by his advance, 
by his precautions, by his stratagem at Oriskany, and 
the conduct of the siege, up to the panic at the rumor 
that Arnold was coming. In the regular army of Eng- 
land he became an ensign in 1756, and coming to 
America the next year he had served in the French 
war, and learned the habits of the Indians, and of 
border warfare. In some local sense, perhaps as com- 
manding this corps, he was styled a brigadier. His 
regular rank was Lieutenant Colonel of the thirty- 
fourth regiment. In those days of trained soldiers it 
was a marked distinction to be chosen to select an in- 
dependent corps on important service. A. wise com- 
mander, fitted for border war, his order of march be- 
speaks him. Skillful in affairs, and scholarly in accom- 
plishments, his writings prove him. Prompt, tenacious, 
fertile in resources, attentive to detail, while master of 
the whole plan, he would not fail where another could 
have won. Inferior to St. Leger in rank, but superior 
to him in natural powers and in personal magnetism, 
was Joseph Brant — Thayendanegea — chief of the Mo- 
hawks. He had been active in arraying the Six Na- 
tions on the side of King George, and only the Oneidas 
and Tuscaroras had refused to follow his lead. He was 
now thirty-five years of age; in figure the ideal Indian 5 
tall and spare and lithe and quick ; with all the genius 
of his tribe, and the training gained in Connecticut 
schools, and in the family of Sir William Johnson; he 
had been a lion in London, and flattered at British head- 
quarters in Montreal. Among the Indians he was 
pre-eminent, and in any circle he would have been 
conspicuous. 



11 

As St. Leger represented the regular army of King 
George, and Brant the Indian allies, Sir John Johnson 
led the regiments which had been organized from the 
settlers in the Mohawk valley. He had inherited from 
his father, Sir William, the largest estate held on the 
continent by any individual, William Penn excepted. 
He had early taken sides with the King against the 
colonists, and having entered into a compact with the 
patriots to preserve peace and remain at Johnstown, he 
had violated his promise, and fled to Canada. He 
came now with a sense of personal wrong, to recover 
his possessions and to resume the almost royal sway 
which he had exercised. He at this time held a com- 
mission as colonel in the British army, to raise and 
command forces raised among the loyalists of the valley. 
Besides these was Butler — John Butler, a brother-in- 
law of Johnson ; lieutenant colonel by rank, rich and 
influential in the valley, familiar with the Indians and 
a favorite with them, shrewd and daring and savage, 
already the father of that son Walter who was to be 
the scourge of the settlers, and with him to render 
ferocious and bloody the border war. He came from 
Niagara, and was now in command of tory rangers. 

The forces were like the leaders. It has been the 
custom to represent St. Lsger's army as a " motley 
crowd." * On the contrary it was a picked force*, es- 
pecially designated by orders from headquarters in 
Britain. 4 He enumerates his "artillery, the thirty- 
fourth and the King's regiment, with the Hessian rifle- 
men and the whole corps of Indians," with him, while 
his advance consisting of a detachment under Lieuten- 
ant Bird, had gone before, and ''the rest of the army, 



*Lossing's Field-Book, vol. 1, p. 242. Irving's Washington, vol. 3, p. 171. 
4. See Appendix, p. 44, for the official order designating the troops. 



12 

led bv Sir John Johnson," was a day's march in the 
rear. Johnson's whole regiment* was with him together 
with Butler's tory rangers, with at least one company 
of Canadians. f The country from Schoharie west- 
ward had been scoured of loyalists to add to this 
column. For such an expedition, the force could not 
have been better chosen. The pet name of the " King's 
regiment" is significant. The artillery was such as 
could be carried by boat, and adapted to the sort of 
war before it. It had been especially designated from 
Whitehall. J The Hanau Chasseurs were trained and 
skillful soldiers. The Indians were the terror of the land. 
The Six Nation* had joined the expedition in full force | 
except the Oneidas and the Tuscaroras. With the lat- 
ter tribes the influence of Samuel Kirkland had over- 
borne that of the Johnsons, and the Oneidas and the 
Tuscaroras were by their peaceful attitude more than by 
hostility useful to Congress to the end. 5 ^[ The state* 
ment§ that two thousand Canadians accompanied him 
as axemen, is no doubt an exaggeration ; but exclusive 
of such helpers and of non-combatants, the corps counted 



* British Annual Register for 1877. See the fourteenth section of this 
Appendix, page 54. 

f Impartial History, (London, 1780, p. 499.) 

\ Burgoyne's State of the Expedition, p. 67, and section fourth of this 
Appendix, p. 45. 

I Colonel Guy Johnson wrote, November 11, 1777, to Lord Germain, "The 
greater part of those from the Six Nations with my officers in that country, 
joined General St. Leger's troops and Sir John Johnson's provincials, and 
were principally concerned in the action near Fort Stanwix." Colonial 
History of New York, vol. 8, p. 727. This was in accordance with a dis- 
patch from Brant to Sir Guy, in June or July, that the " Six Nations were 
all in readiness, (the Oneidas excepted,) and all determined, as they expressed 
it, to act as one man." Colonial History, vol. 8, p. 713. 

* 5. *\ William Tracy in his lectures, p. 14, gives much credit for this re- 
sult to James Dean. See Appendix, p. 46, for a characteristic letter of Rev. 
Samuel Kirkland. 

§ Dawson's Battles of the United States. 



13 

not less than seventeen hundred fighting men.* King 
George could not then have sent a column better fitted 
for its task, or better equipped, or abler led, or more intent 
on achieving all that was imposed upon it. Leaving 
Montreal, it started on the nineteenth of July from Buck 
Island, its rendezvous at the entrance of Lake Ontario. 
It had reached Fort Stanwix without the loss of a man, 
as if on a summer's picnic. It had come through in 
good season. Its chief never doubted that he would 
make quick work with the Fort. He had even cautioned 
Lieutenant Bird who led the advance, lest he should 
risk the seizure with his unaided detachment. When 
his full force appeared, his faith was sure that the fort 
would "fall without a single shot."f So confident was 
he that he sent a dispatch to Burgoyne on the fifth of 
August, assuring him that the fort would be his 
directly, and they would speedily meet as victors at 
Albany. £ General Schuyler had in an official letter 
expressed a like fear. 6 

THE PATRIOT RISING IN TRYON COUNTY. 

St. Leger was therefore surprised as well as annoyed 
by the news that the settlers on the Mohawk had been 
aroused, and were marching in haste to relieve the fort. 

* Gordon's History, (London, 1787,) vol. 2, p. 477, says St. Leger's " whole 
force did not probably exceed 800 men :" p. 529, he credits him with "700 
Indian warriors," This is loose talk. President Dwight, (Travels, vol. 3, p. 
191,) who visited Fort Stanwix in 1799, places the number from 1,500 to 1,800. 

f Colonel Claus had so promised the Indians. Campbell's Annals of Tryon 
county, p. 68. Upon Arnold's approach, when St. Leger urged the Indiana 
to stay, the chiefs replied: "When we marched down, you told us there 
would be no fighting for us Indians ; we might go down and smoke our 
pipes ; but now a number of our warriors have been killed, and you mean to 
sacrifice us." Thacher's Military Journal, p. 90. 

:£ Logging's Field-Book of the Revolution, vol. 1, p. 243. 

6. See Appendix, p. 46, for an extract from the letter. 



14 

He found that his path to join Burgoyne was to be 
contested. He watched by skillful scouts the gathering 
of the patriots; their quick and somewhat irregular 
assembling; he knew of their march from Fort Dayton, 
and their halt at Oriskany. Brant* told him that they 
advanced, as brave, untrained militia, without throwing 
out skirmishers, and with. Indian guile the Mohawk 
chose the pass in which an ambush should be set for 
them. The British commander guarded the way for 
several miles from his position, by scouts within speak- 
ing distance of each other. He knew the importance 
of his movement, and he was guilty of no neglect. 

THE AMBUSCADE. 

From his camp at Fort Stanwix St. Leger saw all, 
and directed all. Sir John Johnson 7 led the force 
thrown out to meet the patriots, with Butler as his 
second, but Brant was its controlling head. The Indi- 
ans were most numerous; "the whole corps," a "large 
body," St. Leger testifies. And with the Indians he 
reports were "some troops." The presence of Johnson, 
and of Butler, as well as of Claus and Watts, of Cap- 
tains Wilson, Hare and McDonald,f the chief loyalists 
of the valley, proves that their followers were in the 
fight. Butler J refers to the New Yorkers whom we 
know as Johnson's Greens, and the Rangers, as in the 
eno-a^ement in lari>'e numbers. St. Le«;er was under 

*The information came on the fifth from Brant's sister, who was a mis- 
tress of Sir William Johnson. See Claus' letter in the Appendix, p. 58. 

7. See Appendix, p. 46, for proof that Johnson actually led the British at 
Oriskany. 

f Captain McDonald of Johnson's Greens, and Captains Wilson and Hare 
of the Rangers, are reported by Colonel Butler among the killed. Other 
captains must have been on the field. While the title was perhaps loosely 
used, it signifies prominence, and some followers. 

\ Stone's Life of Brant, p. 243. 



15 

the absolute necessity of preventing the patriot force 
from attacking him in the rear. He could not do less 
than send every available man out to meet it. Quite 
certainly the choicest of the army were taken from the 
dull duty of the siege for this critical operation. They 
left camp at night and lay above and around the ravine 
at Oriskany, in the early morning of the sixth of Au- 
gust. They numbered not less than twelve hundred 
men under chosen 'cover. 

GENERAL HERKIMER^ RALLY. 

The coming of St. Leger had been known in the val- 
ley for weeks. Bnrgoyne had left Montreal in June, 
and the expedition by way of Lake Ontario, as the ex- 
perience of a hundred years prophesied, would respond 
to his advance. Colonel Gansevoort had appealed to 
the Committee of Safety for Tryon county, for help. 
Its chairman was Nicholas Herckkeimer, (known to us 
as Herkimer,) who had been appointed a brigadier gen- 
eral by Congress in the preceding autumn.* His 
family was large, and it was divided in the contest. A 
brother was captain with Sir John Johnson, and a 
brother-in-law was one of the chief of the loyalists. 
He was now forty-eight years of age,f short, slender, of 
dark complexion, with black hair and bright eyes. J 
He had German pluck and leadership, but he had also 
German caution and deliberation. He foresaw the 
danger, and had given warning to General Schuyler at 
Albany. On the seventeenth of July he had issued a 

™* Stone's Life of Brant, vol. 1, p. 181. His commission to this rank by the 
New York convention, bearing date September 5, 1776, is in the possession 
of the Oneida Historical Society, at Utica. 

f Benton's Herkimer County, p. 1GS. 

X Newspaper report of tradition in the Wagner family. 



10 

proclamation, announcing that the enemy, two thousand 
strong, was at Oswego, and that as soon as he should 
approach, every male person being in health, and be- 
tween sixteen and sixty years of age, should immedi- 
ately be ready to march against him. Tryon county 
had strong appeals for help also from Cherry Valley 
and Ilnadilla, and General Herkimer had been south- 
ward at the close of June to check operations of the 
tories and Indians under Brant. The danger from this 
direction delayed and obstructed recruiting for the col- 
umn against St. Le^er. The stress was sreat, and 
Herkimer was bound to keep watch south as well as 
west. He waited only to learn where need was great- 
est, and he went thither. On the thirtieth of July, 
a letter from Thomas Spencer, a half-breed Oneida, 
read on its way to General Schuyler, made known the 
advance of St. Leger. Herkimer's order was promptly 
issued,* and soon brought in eight hundred men. They 
were nearly all by blood Germans and low Dutch, with 
a few of other nationalities. The roster 18 so far as can now 
be collected, indicates the presence of persons of English, 
Scotch, Irish, Welsh and French blood, but these are ex- 
ceptions, and the majority of the force was beyond ques- 
tion German. They gathered from their farms and clear- 
ings, carrying their equipments with them. They met 
at Fort Dayton, near the mouth of the West Canada 
Creek. This post was held at the time by a part of Col- 
onel Wesson's Massachusetts regiment, J also represented 



* All authorities agree that on receipt of Spencer's letter, Herkimer acted 
vigorously. Stone's Brant, p. 233 ; Annals of Tryon county, p. 73 ; Ram- 
sey's History of the Revolution, (1789.) vol. 2, p. 38, " collected" his men by 
the third of August ; Lossing's Field-Book, vol. 1, p. 243; Benton's History 
of Herkimer county, p. 76. 

18. See Appendix, p. 63. for a roster collected with much care by the 
Utica Herald, in July, 1877. 

\ Benton's Herkimer county, p. 80. 



17 

in the garrison at Fort Stanwix. The little army was 
divided into four regiments or battalions. The first, 
which Herkimer had once commanded, was now led by 
Colonel Ebenezer Cox, and was from the district of 
Canajoharie ; of the second, from Palatine, Jacob Klock 
was colonel; the third was under Colonel Frederick 
Visscher, and came from Mohawk; the fourth, gathered 
from German Flats and Kingsland, Peter Bellinger 
commanded.* 18 

GENERAL HERKIMER^ ADVANCE. 

Counsels were divided whether they should await 
further accessions, or hasten to Fort Stanwix. Pru- 
dence prompted delay. St. Leger's force was more than 
double that of Herkimer; it might be divided, and 
while one-half occupied the patriot column, the Indians 
under tory lead might hurry down the valley, gathering 
reinforcements while they ravaged the homes of the 
patriots. The blow might come from Unadilla, where 
Brant had been as late as the early part of that very 
July. Herkimer, at Fort Dayton, was in position to 
turn in either direction. But the way of the Mohawk 
was the natural and traditional war-path. The pat- 
riots looked to Fort Stanwix as their defense. They 
started on the fourth, crossed the Mohawk where is 
now Utica, and reached Whitestown on the fifth. 
Here it was probably that a band of Oneida Indians 
joined the column. From this point or before, Herki- 
mer sent an express to Colonel Gansevoort arranging 
for co-operation. He was to move forward when three 
cannon signaled that aid was ready. The signal was 
uot heard ; the messengers had been delayed. His 
chief advisers, including Colonel Cox and Paris, the 

* Calendar of New York Manuscripts, vol. 1, p. 123, (revised.) 
18. See in connection with the roster in the Appendix, p. 63, the territory- 
covered by these districts. 
B 



latter a member of the committee of Safety, urged 
quicker movement?. Fort Stanwix might fall, while 
they were delaying, and the foe could then turn upon 
them. Herkimer was taunted as a coward and a tory. 
His German phlegm was stirred. He warned his im- 
patient advisers that they would be the first in the face 
of the enemy to flee. He gave the order " march on !" 
Apprised of the ambuscade, his courage which had been 
assailed prevented the necessary precautions. 

THE FIGHT. 

He led his little band on. If he had before been 
cautious, now he was audacious. His course lay on 
the south side of the river, avoiding its bends, where the 
country loses the general level which the rude road 
sought to follow, when it could be found. For three 
or four miles hills rose upon valleys, with occasional 
gulleys. The trickling springs and the spring freshets 
had cut more than one ravine where even in the sum- 
mer, the water still moistened the earth. These run 
towards the river, from southerly towards the north. 
Corduroy roads had been constructed over the marshes, 
for this was the line of such travel as sought Fort Stan- 
wix and the river otherwise than by boat. Herkimer 
had come to one of the deepest of these ravines, ten or 
twelve rods wide, running narrower up to the hills at 
the south, and broadening towards the Mohawk into 
the flat bottom land. Where the forests were thick, 
where the rude roadway ran clown into the marsh, 
and the ravine closed like a pocket, he 'pressed his 
way. Not in soldierly order, not watching against the 
enemy, but in rough haste, the eight hundred marched. 
They reached the ravine at ten in the morning. The 
advance had gained the higher ground. Then as so 
often, the woods became alive. Black eyes flashed 



19 

from behind every tree. Rifles blazed from a thousand 
unexpected coverts. The Indians rushed out hatchet 
in hand, decked in paint and feathers. The brave band 
was checked. It was cut in two. The assailants aimed 
first of all to seize the supply train. Colonel Visscher, 
who commanded its guard, showed his courage before 
and after* and doubtless fought well here, as the best 
informed descendants of other heroes of the battle be- 
lieve. But his regiment was driven northward towards 
the river, was cut up or in great part captured with the 
supplies and ammunition. In the ravine and just west of 
it, Herkimer rallied those who stood with him. Back to 
back, shoulder to shoulder, they faced the foe. Where 
shelter could be had, two stood together, so that one 
might lire while the other loaded. Often the fight grew 
closer, and the knife ended the personal contest. Eye 
to eye, hand to hand, this was a fight of men. Nerve 
aud brawn and muscle, were the price of life. Rifle 
and knife, spear and tomahawk were the only weapons, 
or the clubbed butt of the rifle. It was not a test of 
science, not a weighing of enginery, not a measure of 
caliber nor an exhibition of choicest mechanism. Men 
stood ao-ainst death, and death struck at them with the 
simplest implements. Homer sings of chariots and 
shields. Here were no such helps, no such defenses. 
Forts or earthworks, barricades or abattis, there were 
none. The British force had chosen its ground. Two 
to one it must have been against the band which stood 
and fought in that pass, forever glorious. Herkimer, 
early wounded and his horse shot under him, sat on his 
saddle beneath a beech tree, just where the hill rises at 
the west a little north of the center of the ravine, 
calmly smoking a pipe while ordering the battle. He 
was urged to retire from so much danger; his reply is 
the eloquence of a hero : " I will face the enemy." 

* Stone's Life of Brant, vol 2, pp. 74, 75. 



20 

The ground tells the story of the fight. General 
Herkimer was with the advance, which had crossed the 
ravine. His column stretched out for nearly half a 
mile. Its head was a hundred rods or more west of 
the ravine, his rear-guard reached as far east of it. 
The firing began from the hills into the gulf. Herki- 
mer closed his line on its center, and in reaching that 
point his white horse was shot under him. The flag- 
staff to-day on the hill marks his position. Then as 
to-day the hills curved like a cimeter, from the west 
to the east on the north side of the river. Fort Stan- 
wix could not be seen but it lay in the plain just be- 
yond the gap in the hills, six miles distant. The Mo- 
hawk from the mouth of the Oriskauy curved north- 
ward, so that here it is as far away in a right line, 
perhaps a mile in each case. The bottoms were 
marshy, as they yet are where the trees exclude the 
sun. Now the New York Central Railroad and the 
Erie Canal mark the general direction of the march of 
the patriots from their starting-place hither. Then 
forests of beach and birch and maple and hemlock 
covered the land where now orchards and rich mea- 
dows extend, and grain-fields are ripening for the 
harvest. Even the forests are gone, and the Mohawk 
and the hills and the ravine and " Battle Brook," 
are the sole witnesses to confirm the traditions which 
have come down to us. The elms which fling their 
plumes to the sky, are young successors to the knightly 
warriors who were once masters here. Through the 
forests Herkimer from his elevation could catc 1 the 
general outlines of the battle. Some of his advance 
had fallen at the farthest point to Avhich they had 
marched. Upon their left, the enemy had appeared in 
force, and had closed up from the southward, and on 
the east side of the ravine. The patriots had been 
pushed to the north side of the road, away from the 



21 

line which the corduroy still marks in the ravine, and 
those who tied sought the river. Skeletons have been 
found in the smaller ravine about two hundred rods 
west, and at the mouth of the Oriskany, an extent of a 
mile and a half; and gun-barrels and other relics along 
the line of the Erie Canal, and down towards the river. 
These are witnesses of the limits of the battle. They 
mark the center here. Here gathered the brave militia 
without uniforms, in the garb of farmers, for their fire- 
sides and their homes, and the republic just born which 
was to be. Against them here, in the ravine, pursuing 
and capturing the rear-guard on the east of the ravine 
or down in it, and thence towards the river, rushed 
from the forests, uniformed and well equipped, John- 
son's Greens in their gay color, the German Chasseurs, 
Europe's best soldiers, with picked men of British and 
Canadian regiments, and the Indian warriors decked in 
the equipments with which they made war brilliant. 
Some of this scene, Herkimer saw ; some of it extent 
of space and thickness of forest hid from his eye. But 
here he faced the enemy, and here he ordered the battle. 
During the carnage, a storm of wind and rain and 
lightning brought a respite. Old men preserve the 
tradition that in the path by which the enemy came, 
a broad windfall was cut, and was seen for long years 
afterwards. The elements caused only a short lull. In 
came at the thick of the strife, a detachment of John- 
son's Greens ; and they sought to appear reinforcements 
for the patriots. They paid dearly for the fraud, for 
thirty were quickly killed. Captain Gardenier slew 
three with his spear, one after the other.* Captain 
Dillenback assailed by three, brained one, shot the 
second, and bayoneted the third. Henry Thompson 
grew faint with hunger, sat down on the body of a 
dead soldier, ate his lunch, and refreshed resumed the 

* Stone's Life of Brant, vol. 1, p. 239, 240. 







fight. William Merckley, mortally wounded, to a friend 
offering to assist him, said: "Take care of yourself, 
leave me to my fate. 11 * Such men could not be 
whipped. The Indians finding they were losing many, 
became suspicious that their allies wished to destroy 
them, and fired on them, giving unexpected aid to the 
patriot band.f Tradition relates that an Oneida maid, 
only fifteen years old, daughter of a chief, fought on 
the side of the patriots, firing her rifle, and shouting 
her battle cry. J The Indians raised the cry of retreat, 
" Oonah !" "Oonali!" Johnson heard the firino; of a 
sortie from the fort. The British fell back, after five 
hours of desperate fight. J Herkimer and his gallant 
men held the ground. 

THE SORTIE. 

The sortie from Fort Stanwix which Herkimer ex- 
pected, was made as soon as his messengers arrived. 
They were delayed, and yet got through at a critical 
moment. Colonel Willett made a sally at the head of 
two hundred and fifty men, totally routed two of the- 
enernj^s encampments, and captured their contents, 
including five British flags. The exploit did not cost a 
single patriot life, while at least six of the enemy were 
killed and four made prisoners. It aided to force the 
British retreat from Oriskany. The captured flags 
were floated beneath the stars and stripes, fashioned in 

* Simms' Schoharie, p. 263, 264. 

f President Dwight (Travels, vol. 3, p. 193,) who in 1799, heard the stories 
of persons living near the battle-field, relates this incident. 

:{: Newspaper report of a tradition in the family of George Wagner, a 
survivor. 

|| Dr. Moses Younglove, who was taken prisoner at the battle, fixes the time : 
" Then we with equal fury joined the fight 
Ere Phoebus gained his full meridian height, 
Nor ceased the horrors of the bloody fray, 
Till lie had journeyed half his evening way." 

Appendix to Campbell's Annals of Tryon county, p. 32. 



23 

the fort from cloaks and shirts ; and here for the first 
time the flag of the republic was raised in victory over 
British colors." 

tup: losses. 

The slaughter at Oriskany was terrible. St. Leger 
claims that four hundred of Herkimer's men were 
killed and two hundred captured, leaving only two 
hundred to escape. No such number of prisoners was 
ever accounted for. The Americans admitted two 
hundred killed, one-fourth of the whole army. St. 
Leger places the number of Indians killed at thirty, 
and the like number wounded, including favorite chiefs 
and confidential warriors. It was doubtless greater, 
for the Senecas alone lost thirty-six killed, and in all 
the tribes twice as many must have been killed. St. 
Leger makes no account of any of his whites killed or 
wounded. Butler, f however, mentions of New Yorkers 
(Johnson's Greens) killed, Captain McDonald ; Captain 
Watts dangerously wounded and one subaltern. Of 
the Tory Hangers Captains Wilson and Hare (their 
chiefs after Butler) were killed. With such loss of 
officers, the death list of privates must have been con 
siderable. The Greens alone lost thirty. In Britain it 
was believed as many of the British were killed by the 



* Lossing, Field-Book, vol. 1, p. 242, says the blue was taken from a camlet 
cloak of Captain Swartwout, and the white from cotton shirts. General 
Schuyler Hamilton in the Historical Magazine, for July, 1877, p. 420, states 
on the authority of his grand-mother, a daughter of General Philip Schuy- 
ler, that the stripes were made from a scarlet cloak belonging to one of the 
women of the garrison. Willett says the blue cloak had been captured 
from the British at Peekskill; Narrative, p. 42. All that relates to this flag, 
the first ever lifting the stars and stripes in battle and in victory, has lasting 
interest. 

f Claus agrees substantially, and speaks of two or three privates killed. 
Letter to Secretary Knox, in London ; New York Colonial History, vol. 8, 
p. 721 ; see this Appendix, p. 58. 



24 

Indians as by the militia.* The loss of British and 
Indians must have approached a hundred and fifty 
killed. Eye-witnesses were found who estimated it 
as great as that of the Americans. + The patriot dead 
included Colonel Cox, and his Lieutenant Colonel 
Hunt, Majors Eisenlord, Van Slyck, Klapsattle and 
Blevin ; and Captains Diefendorf, Crouse, Bowman, 
Dillenback, Davis, Pettengill, Helmer, Graves and 
Fox; with no less than four members of the Tryon 
county committee of Safety, who were present as vol- 
unteers. They were Isaac Paris, Samuel Billington, 
John Dygert, and Jacob Snell. Spencer, the Oneida, 
who gave the warning to the patriots, was also 
among the killed. The heads of the patriot organiza- 
tion in the valley were swept off. Herkimer's glory 
is that out of such slaughter he snatched the substance 
of victory. In no other battle of the revolution did 
the ratio of deaths rise so high. At Waterloo, the 
French loss was not in so large a ratio to the num- 
ber engaged, as was Herkimer's at Oriskany; nor did 
the allies suffer as much on that bloody field. 

Frightful barbarities were wreaked on the bodies of 
the dead, and on the prisoners who fell into the hands 
of the Indians. The patriots held the field at the close 
of the fight, and were able to carry off their wounded. 
Among these was the brave and sturdy Herkimer, who 
was taken on a litter of boughs to his home, and 
after suffering the amputation of his leg, died on 
the sixteenth of August, like a Christian hero. Of the 
dead some at least lay unburied until eighteen days 
later. Arnold's column rendered to them that last 
service. J 

* Gordon's History, (London, 1787,) vol. 2, p. 530. 

f A. D. Quack enboss who was in the tight so believed. Stone's Brant, 
p. 4G1 ; Neilson's Burgoyne, p. 5(5. 
\ Jones' History of Oneida County, p. 361 ; Tracy's Lectures, p. 15. 



25 

After the battle, Colonel Samuel Campbell* after- 
wards conspicuous in Otsego county, became senior 
officer, and organized the shattered patriots, leading 
them in good order back to Fort Dayton. The night 
of the tight, they bivouaced at Utica. Terrible as their 
losses had been, only sixteen days later Governor Clin- 
ton positively ordered them to join General Arnold on 
his expedition with one-half of each regiment. 12 In his 
desperation, Sir John Johnson " proposed to march 
down the country with about two hundred men," and 
Glaus would have added Indians;! but St. Leger dis- 
approved of the suggestion. Only a raid could have 
been possible. The fighting capacity of St. Leger' s 
army was exhausted at Oriskany, and he knew it. 

THE SIEGE. J 

St. Leber's advance was checked. His junction with 
Burgoyne was prevented. The rising 'of loyalists 
in the valley did not occur. He claimed indeed the 
"completest victory" at Oriskany. He notified the 
garrison that Burgoyne was victorious at Albany, and 
demanded peremptorily the surrender of the fort, 
threatening that prolonged resistance would result in 
general massacre at the hands of the enraged Indians. 
Johnson, Clans and Butler issued an address to the 
inhabitants of Tryon county, urging them to submit, 

* Letter of his grandson, Hon. W. W. Campbell, in Utica Herald, July 
27, 1877. 

12. See Appendix, p. 47, for this important letter, which is copied from 
the manuuscript in the State Library at Albany. 

fClaus' letter to Knox; London Documents in Colonial History, vol. 8, 
p. 721, and section seventeenth of tbis Appendix, p. 58. 

JFor a sketch of the siege of Fort Stan wix presented to Colonel Ganse- 
voort by L. Fleury, and with a map of tbe village of Rome overlaid upon it, 
see Houft'li's Memoir of M. Pouchot. 



26 

because "surrounded by victorious armies." Colouel 
Gansevoort treated the summons as an insult, and held 
his post with sturdy steadiness."* The people of the 
valley sided with Congress against the King. For six- 
teen days after Oriskany, St. Leger lay before Fort 
Stanwix, and heard more and more clearly the rumbles 
of fresh resistance from the valley. 

THE RELIEF U^DER ARXOLD's LEAD. 

Colonel Willett who led the gallant sortie, accompa- 
nied by Major Stockwell, risked no less danger 0:1 a 
mission through thickets and hidden foes, to inform 
General Schuyler at Albany of the situation. In a 
council of officers, bitter opposition arose to Schuyler's 
proposal to send relief to Fort Stanwix, on the plea 
that it would weaken the army at Albany, the more 
important position. Schuyler was equal to the occasion,, 
acting promptly, and with great energy. "Gentlemen," 
said he, " I take the responsibility upon myself. Where 
is the brigadier who will command the relief? I shall 
beat up for volunteers to-morrow."f Benedict Arnold,, 
then unstained by treason, promptly offered to lead the 
army. On the next day, August ninth,;} eight hundred 
volunteers were enrolled, chiefly of General Larned's 
Massachusetts brigade. General Israel Putnam ordered 
the regiments of Colonel Cortlandt and Livingston from 
Peekskill to join the relief " against those worse than 
internals. " 8 Arnold was to take supplies wherever lie 

*The British Impartial History says " Colouel Gansevoort behaved with 
great firmness," p. 475. 

f Lossing's Life of Schuyler. 

\ Letter of Schuyler in Annals of Tryon County, p. 88. 

8. Manuscript Letter in the Clinton Collection, in State Library at Al- 
bany. See Appendix, p. 47. 



27 

could get them, and especially not to offend the already 
unfriendly Mohawks. Schuyler enjoined upon him also 
a as the inhabitants of Tryon county were chiefly Ger- 
mans, it might be well to praise their bravery at Oris- 
kany, and ask their gallant aid in the enterprise." Ar- 
nold reached Fort Dayton, and on the twentieth of 
August issued as commander-in-chief of the army of 
the United States of America on the Mohawk river, a 
characteristic proclamation, denouncing St. Leger as "a 
leader of a banditti of robbers, murderers and traitors, 
composed of savages of America and more savage 
Britons." The militia joined him in great numbers. 
On the twenty-second, Arnold pushed forward, and on 
the twenty-fourth he arrived at Fort Stanwix. St. 
Leger had raised the siege and precipitately fled. 

St. Leger had been frightened by rumors of the rapid 
advance of Arnold's army. Arnold had taken pains 
to fill the air with them. He hadsent to St. Legei's 
camp a half-witted loyalist, Hon Yost Schuyler, to 
exaggerate his numbers and his speed. The Indians 
in camp were restive and kept track of the army of 
relief. They badgered St. Leger to retreat, and threat- 
ened to abandon him. They raised the alarm, "they 
are coming!" and for the numbers of the patriots 
approaching, they pointed to the leaves of the forest. 



st. leger's flight. 



On the twenty-second of August, while Arnold was 
yet at Utica, St. Leger fled. The Indians were weary ; 
they had lost goods by Willett's sortie ; they saw no 
chance for spoils. Their chiefs killed at Oriskany 
beckoned them away. They began to abandon the 
ground, and to spoil the camp of their allies. St. 
Leger deemed his danger from them, if he refused to 



28 

follow their councils, greater than from the enemy. 
He hurried his wounded and prisoners forward ; he 
left his tents, with most of his artillery and stores, 
spoils to the garrison.* His men threw away their 
packs in their flight. He quarreled with Johnson, and 
the Indians had to make peace between them. St. 
Leger indeed was helpless. The flight became a dis- 
graceful rout. The Indians butchered alike prisoners 
and British who could not keep up, or became sepa- 
rated from the column. 14 St. Leger's expedition, as 
one of the latest became one of the most striking illus- 
trations to the British of the risks and terrors of an 
Indian alliance. 10 



The siesfe of Fort Stanwix was raised. The losnc of 
the battle of Oriskauy was consummated. The whole 
story has been much neglected, and the best authorities 
on the subject are British. f The battle is one of a 
series of events which constitute a chain of history as 
picturesque, as exciting, as heroic, as important, as 
■ennoble any part of this or any other land. 



II. 



THE WEIGHT AND MEASURE OF THE BATTLE. 

Oriskany it is our duty to weigh and measure. 
Wherein was the stand of Greeks at Thermopylae 
braver, than this march of Herkimer into the ravine? 

* Gordon's History, vol. 2, p. 534, who cites Reverend Samuel Kirkland 
" who was part of the time at the Fort," as his direct informant. 

14. British Annual Register, for 1777. See Appendix, p. 57. 

10. As a record not familiar to many American readers, see in Appendix, 
p. 48, the Narrative of his Expedition by St. Leger himself. 

f For portions of the record. Stone's Life of Brant must be excepted as a 
faithful and accurate chronicle. 



29 

Wherein have Norse vikings shown sturdier stuff in 
fight \ Tell me when panoplied crusader ever made 
more light of death than those nnmailed farmers of the 
Mohawk. Cite from verse of ancient or modern poet 
the elan of truer courage, the steadiness of sterner 
determination, the consecration of more glowing patriot- 
ism than held the pass at Oriskany. 

THE STRATEGY HISTORIC. 

The strategy of the British campaign of 1777 was 
comprehensive, and it was traditional. With Canada 
hostile to the country south of it, the plan of Burgoyne 
was as natural as it is for a pugilist to strike with both 
fists. Fronting southward, indeed, the blow by Lake 
Champlain the Canadian forces deliver with their left 
fist ; the route by Lnke Ontario through Oswego in- 
land, invites the blow of the right hand. As early as 
1687 the French sroverument received from Canada a 
memorial which recommends : " The Iroquois must be 
attacked in two directions. The first, and principal 
attack must be on the Seneca nation, on the borders of 
Lake Ontario ; the second, by the river Richelieu and 
Lake Champlain, in the direction of the Mohawks."* 
The French authorities never abandoned this purpose 
until they were driven from the continent. Frontenac 
wrote his name in fire and blood in the way Burgoyne 
sought to travel. The co-operation of the fleet at the 
mouth of the Hudson, was proposed by Mons. Cal- 
lierres in lG89.f Montcalm J led the French by these 

* Paris Documents, p. 321. f Paris Documents, p. 420. 

% See the Memoir of the French War of 1755-60, by M. Pouchot, translated 
by F. B. Hough. M. Pouchot, who Avas with Montcalm, could learn of no 
routes from Canada to the English possessions except, 1, by way of Lake 
Champlain ; 2, by the St. Lawrence to Oswego and the Oswego river ; 3, by 
Lake Ontario to the Genesee river ; and 4, by way of Niagara to the Ohio 
river. 



30 

paths in 1756, when DeLsry penetrated to Fort Bull, 
at the carry near the Mohawk, and the English power 
yielded up Champlain and Lake George to the in- 
vadeis. Holding the southern shores of Lake Ontario, 
it was from Lake Champlain, with co-operation by a 
force brought up the St. Law r rence, that the English 
dealt the return attack in 1759, when Wolfe fell before 
Quebec. At Ticonderoga and Crown Point, on the 
path to the Hudson, and at Niagara on Lake Ontario, 
the French power in America breathed its last. 

In October, 1776, Sir Guy Carleton had swept over 
Lake Champlain, and taken Crown Point, and only 
waited for another season to carry his conquests south- 
ward. It was, perhaps, because in London Burgoyne 
criticised the neglect to send a corps by way of Oswego, 
through the Mohawk valley, to assist in the campaign, 
that he, instead of Carleton, led the invasion which 
ended so disastrously for Britain. 

But the British government had earlier precedents 
than these for choosing these routes for the campaign 
of 1777. The French migration came by them into the 
wilderness which is now New York, and it was by 
them that, at intervals for a hundred years the Iroquois 
and their allies carried terror to the walls of Montreal 
and Quebec."' The campaigns of the w^ar of 1812 re- 
newed the traditions of the military importance of the 
line of Lake Ontario and Lake Champlain. Oswego 
and Plattsburg and McDonough's victory perpetuate 
the series of contests in this historic field. The key to 
the heart of the original Union lies in the heights from 
which flow the Mohawk and the Hudson. 



*The Mohawks and Oaeidas appeared before Montreal, August 12, 1602 ; 
Brodhead's History of New York, vol. 1, p. 705. The Iroquois iu 1688; vol. 
2, p. 507. 



31 



st. leger's expedition a vital part. 

Ill the original plan, St. Lager's expedition is stated 
as a "diversion," both by Burgoyne and in the official 
letter of Lord George Grermaine, the secretary of state 
for war. The command was given to St. Leger from 
Whitehall, on Burgoyne's nomination, so that it was an 
independent expedition. The troops were in like man- 
ner selected, because much depended on the movement. 
Upon his success, as it proved, the campaign hung. 
When Burgoyne explained his failure, he laid much 
stress on the defeat of St. Leger,' and one of the chief 
points to account for his own slowness, is ; " the time en- 
titled me to expect Lieutenant Colonel St. Leger's corps 
would be arrived at Ticonderoga, and secret means had 
been long concerted to enable him to make an effort to 
join me, with probability of success." And because 
St. Leger "had been obliged to retreat," he assigns as 
removing " the first plausible motive in favor of hazard- 
ous battle," when he was near Saratoga. In the cam- 
paign of 1777, the expedition to the Mohawk was one 
of the two wings without which success was impossible, 
which once clipped, crippled everything. The battle 
of Bennington was brought on by a British movement 
having two objects in view, first, to obtain supplies, 
and second, to create a diversion to aid St. Leger.* 
Every historian who writes of Burgoyne's. operations, 
treats the expedition to the Mohawk as in a military 
sen^e a vital element in them. 11 



* Stedman's History of the Revolution, (one of the best British records of 
the struggle;) Bancroft, vol. 5, p. 287. 

11. See Appendix, p. 51, for authorities. Burgoyne himself in urging 
considerations justifying his advance, in a letter to Lord Germaine, says, 
(Defense, Appendix, p. xxii :) "Colonel St. Leger's operations would have 
been assisted, a junction with him probably secured, and the whole country 
to the Mohawk opened." 



32 



EFFECT OF ORISKANY ON THE VALLEY AND THE INDIANS. 

But we get a faint view of the purpose of the expe- 
dition, and of the significance of Oriskany, if we look 
only at military considerations. Its moral influence was 
great and far-reaching. Sir John Johnson boasted that 
the tories were as five to one in the Mohawk valley, 
and when he came at the head of a British army, they 
would rise for the king. Through Johnson and Brant, 
the design was fostered of holding the Six Nations 
closely to the royal cause, and thus crushing out the 
whole patriot influence west of the Hudson. Both 
purposes were shrewd, and had fair grounds. The 
patriots knew of these dangers. In the summons which 
had aroused Tryon county, they had been told : " one 
resolute blow would secure the friendship of the Six 
Nations." The committee of Safety knew the efforts it 
cost to maintain the authority of Congress. Herkimer 
fought at Oriskany against a tory rising at Johnstown, 
against the complete enlistment of the Iroquois with 
the British. His victory is measured only when we 
remember that no tory rising ever disgraced the Mo- 
hawk valley, and that from that hour the Indians were 
a source of terror and of weakness to the forces of 
King George. 

EFFECT ON THE COUNTRY. 

The effect of Oriskany, on the Americans, was elec- 
tric. Washington said " Herkimer first reversed the 
gloomy sceue" of the campaign. General Gates w^rote 
of "the severe Wow General Herkimer gave Johnson 
and the scalpers under his command." General Schuy- 
ler in replying to General Herkimer's report, said: 
"The gallantry of you and the few men that stood 
w T ith you and repulsed such a superior number of sav- 



83 

ages, reflects great honor upon you." Governor George 
Clinton expressed, " the highest sense of the loyalty, 
valor and bravery of the militia of Tryon county, man- 
ifested in the victory gained by them under the com- 
mand of their late worthy General Herkimer, for which 
as the chief magistrate of the free and independent 
State of New York, they have my most hearty 
thanks." 12 The defense of Fort Stanwix led John 
Adams to declare that "Gansevoort has proved that it 
is possible to hold a post," and the Oneida Spencer had 
warned the Tryon patriots not to make a Ticonderoo-a 
of Fort Stanwix. 

These wise leaders estimated the battle better than 
writers like Irving,* who intimates that " it does not 
appear that either party was entitled to the victory," 
or Doctor Thacher,f who can only claim that "St. 
Lager's victory over our militia was purchased at a 
dear price," or LossingJ who bluntly speaks of "the 
defeat of Herkimer." The patriots held the ground, 
and carried off their wounded at leisure. Of the tory 
wounded Major Watts lay two days uncared for. By 
the battle St. Leger was bottled up in his camp ; by it, 
the forces ordered with Arnold, and probably also, the 
Massachusetts troops who took part in Wiilett's sortie, 
were able to join in the operations against Burgoyne 
and were in the first battle of Stillwater.! The whole 



12. See Appendix, p. 52, for the letter copied from the original manuscript 
at Albany. 

*Life of Washington, vol. 3, p. 176. 

f Military Journal, p. 89. 

\ Pictoral Field-Book of the Revolution, vol. 1, p. 250. 

|| Lossing's Field-Book, vol. 1, p. 51, enumerates at Stillwater, all the regi- 
ments which marched up the valley with Arnold, and Colonel Wesson's 
Massachusetts regiment, of which was the detachment which reached Fort 
Stanwix on the second of August. 



34 

valley of the Mohawk cast itself into the scales for the 
victory of Saratoga. 13 

Herkimer started for Fort Stanwix, and his force ex- 
cept a few scouts did not reach it. His little army 
was broken up. But its sacrifice, costly as it was, 
saved the valley. The frightful slaughter of their 
leaders at first paralyzed the settlers, but they rallied 
without delay and joined Arnold's relief army in large 
numbers.' 35 ' The battle penned St. Leger and Johnson 
and Brant before Fort Stanwix. It raised the spirits 
of the beleaguered garrison to a high pitch. 9 With Ben- 
nington which came afterwards, the Americans felt it 
gave them " great and glorious victories,"-^ and u noth- 
ing exceeded their exultation '' over them ; and the 
" northern militia began now to look high, and to for- 
get all distinctions between themselves and regular 
troops." This confidence was worth armies. Congress 
voted a monument to Herkimer, not yet erected save 
in the hearts of the people, and no one questioned that 
the gallant chief had earned the distinction. To Col- 
onel Willett a sword was presented by Congress for his 
noble exploit, and Colonel Gansevoort received the 
thanks of Congress, a colonel's commission, and a 
special designation as commandant of the Fort which 
he had so bravely defended. 

AIMS AND ESTIMATES ON BOTH SIDES. 

The battle of Oriskany and the defense of Fort 
Stanwix are Siamese twins. Separate events, they are 

13. See Appendix, p. 53, for testimony from leading British, authorities, 
as well as others. 

* Arnold's letter to Colonel Gansevoort, August 22, 1877. 
9. See Appendix, p. 47, for Governor Clinton's letter to Committee of 
Safety, August 22d, in New York State Library. 

14. British Annual Register, 1777; see Appendix p. 57. 



35 

so conjoined that they must be treated as inseparable 
in fact. The battle so paralyzed St. Leger and demor- 
alized his army, that the siege became a failure. It is 
notable that British historians nearest to the event, 
give to Oriskany a degree of prominence which our 
own writers have hardly equaled. The defeat of St. 
Leger's expedition British writers of that day, recog- 
nize as one of the pivots on which Saratoga was lost 
and won, and British sentiment agrees that " Saratoga 
was indeed the turning point of the American strug- 
gle."* The British Annual Kegister, noteworthy be- 
cause established by Edmund Burke, and because its 
historical articles were still revised if not written by 
him, in the volume for 1777, published the next year, 
clearly indicates that the valley of the Mohawk was 
the very eye of the campaign. 14 This judgment is the 
more important because the identical text is embodied 
in the History of the War printed in Dublin, 1779, 
and has become standard in England. In the Impar- 
tial History, after Burgoyne's arrival at Ticonderoga, 
the author says : " It is not to be wondered at, if both 
officers and private men (in Burgo}me's army) were 
highly elated with their fortune, and deemed that and 
their prowess to be irresistible ; if they regarded their 
enemy with the greatest contempt, and considered their 
own toils to be nearly at an end ; Albany to be already 
in their hands, and the reduction of the northern prov- 
inces to be rather a matter of some time, than an 
arduous task full of difficulty and danger."f Erron- 
eously referring to Bennington, the same author uses 
words justly applicable to Oriskany: J "This was the 

* English Cyclopedia, article on Burgoyne. 

14. See Appendix, p. 54, for the words of the Register. 

f Impartial History of the War in America, London, 1780, p. 460. % The 
same, p. 472. 



36 

first instance in the present campaign, in which fortune 
seemed even wavering, much less that she for a moment 
quitted the royal standard. The exultation was accord- 
ingly great on the one side ; nor could the other avoid 
feeling some damp to that eagerness of hope, and 
receiving some cheek to that assured confidence of 
success, which an unmixed series of fortunate events 
must naturally excite." The shield had been fully 
reversed, within a single month. 

St. Leger claimed that Johnson won "the completest 
victory," but this was on the assumption " that the militia 
would never rally." 15 He miscalculated the blow; it 
was not fatal to the patriots; its consequences were 
fatal to his plans. The check which he received at 
Oriskany and his consequent delay, forced Burgoyne to 
take the risk which brought on him the defeat at Ben- 
nington. Although second in importance as well as in 
older of time, Stedman, 10 one of the best British 
authorities, names the Vermont fight first in order, as 
does the British Impartial History, (London, 1780,) 
fixing Bennington properly on August 16th, but for the 
affair on the Mohawk, naming no date until St. Leger's 
flight oil the twenty-second of August. The " History 
of the War" published in Dublin, 1779, places the bat- 
tle of Oriskany on the sixteenth of August, on the 
same day as that of Bennington.* In spite of this 
reversal of the order of time, all these authorities con- 
cede to the affair at Oriskany, a measure of importance 
which the occupants of the historic field only begin to 
assert. As the first blow of the campaign, Oriskany 



15. Letter to Burgoyne, August 11, 1777. Remembrancer, 1777, p. 392. 
See Appendix, p. 58. 

16. See Appendix, p. 58, for the citation. 
* Pages, 291-293. 



37 

has to the campaign of 1777, the primacy which Lex- 
ington has to the whole war. 

The failure of St. Leger cut off the right arm of Bur- 
goyne. Bnrgoyne still clinging to his hopes, believed 
if Sir Henry Clinton had reached the Highlands earlier, 
as he did when too late, he "should have had his way."* 
But his own detailed statement proves that he felt that 
the grave of his campaign was dug when a loyalist 
rising was prevented in the Mohawk valley ; 13 and 
that was the achievement of Herkimer and the heroes 
of Oriskany. 

The success of St. Leger at Oriskany and Fort Stan- 
wix would have been fatal. The Mohawk valley would 
have been overrun by the tories. Albany would have 
fallen, and Gates been overpowered. Defeat, decided 
and prompt, would have turned St. Leger back to Os- 
wego, and enabled him with the remnant of his 
corps, to open a retreat for Burgoyne .as the latter 
intimates had been contingently concerted. f For the 
emergency of a defeat which closed the Mohawk 
valley, and of a siege which held him for three 
weeks before Fort Stanwix, no calculation had been 
made. It was this combination which proved so fortu- 
nate for the republic. 

DIVISIONS IN THE VALLEY: DANGERS AVERTED. 

The dangers to the American cause in the valley, 
were peculiar. To the German settlers King George 
had always been a foreign king. They owed him 
neither affection nor allegiance. It was easy for them 
to sustain Congress and to fight for independence. 

* Defense, p. 17. 

13. See Appendix, p. 53, for his own words. 

f Burgoyne's Defense, (London, 1780,) p. 15. 



38 

They had been jealous of the influence of the John- 
sons over the Indians, and over the valley, and that 
pique was fully reciprocated. Besides the ties of family 
favor and apparent interest, the Johnsons clung all the 
more closely to the royal cause, because the Germans 
took the other part. Something of religions feeling 
entered into the division, for the Johnsons stood for 
the Church of England, and Kirkland and other dis- 
senting ministers had been pressing for independence 
in faith and practice.* The interior of New York had 
felt little or nothing of the burden of taxes which had 
stirred the other colonies. No royal charter had ever 
been in force over the State. The settlers who came 
from Britain hither lacked the causes for separation 
which stirred New England and the South, and when 
the immigrants from other lands enlisted for Congress, 
the tory leaders confidently trusted that they could 
carry the British colonists for King George. Many 
causes prevented. The patriot leaders were shrewd 
and diligent, and they were on the soil, while the tory 
chiefs were absent. For no long time is it possible that 
New York shall be alien from New England and the 
States on our southern borders. But the fight at Oris- 
kany came at the right time to kindle the patriot fires, 
to draw the lines between the belligerents, to merge old 
world antagonisms into American patriotism. In the 
blood shed in that historic field, New York was bap- 
tized as a State, and as a State in an enduring republic, 
in a united nation. 

SIGNIFICANCE FROM LOCATION. 

The battle of Oriskany was the more significant be- 
cause it was fought near the center of the Long House 



* See Lothrop's Life of Rev. Samuel Kirkland, p. 233, for a notable illustra- 
tion. 



39 

of the Iroquois. Indian phrase had so styled the val- 
ley, for which they placed the western door at the 
opening of the waters" at Niagara, and the eastern door 
where the Mohawk seeks the Hudson.* It was held 
with its approaches, when the white men came, by the 
Six Nations, the master tribes among the Indians. 
They had discovered its fitness for the path of empire 
and the seat of dominion. Cadwallader Colden, in 
1738, in an official report,f noted the peculiar feature 
that here " some branches of the largest rivers of North 
America, and which run contrary courses, take their 
rise within two or three miles of each other ; " the Mo- . 
hawk flowing into the Hadson, the St. Lawrence finding 
affluents to carry northward, the Susquehanna to add 
to Chesapeake bay ; and from the western walls of the 
Long House, waters seek the Mississippi and the Gulf. 
This configuration gave, naturally, political and mili- 
tary significance to what is now the center of New 
York. J The Iroquois from it became little less than 
lords of the continent. Into it the French missionaries 
early came to spy out the land, with that devotion 
which led Father Jogues| to "write the name of Jesus 
on the barks of trees in the Mohawk Valley," in 1642, 
and that foresight which for generations prompted the 
French Governors of Canada to aim to expel the 
English by the instrumentality of the Iroquois.§ In 
critical periods the British found the Iroquois, by their 
fidelity and prowess, a sufficient bulwark against French 
encroachments. *|[ From Manhattan the Dutch had 

* Morgan's League of the Iroquois, p. 40. 
f Documentary History of New York, vol. 4, p. 112. 

\ DeWitt Clinton's Address on the Iroquois. Campbell's Life of Clinton, 
p. 210. Brodhead's History of New York, vol. 2, p. 8. 
|| Bancroft, vol. 2, p. 310. 

§ Paris Documents, Documentary History, vol. 9, p. 954, 958. 
1 Bancroft, vol. 2, p. 152. 



40 

reacted out, and planted Fort Orange at Albany, and 
had made friends and kept friends with the Iroquois. 
Over from the New England settlements the English 
crowded into lands whose advantages they clearly saw, 
and the English Governors at Manhattan were glad to 
frame treaties to grant to the Iroquois the same advan- 
tages which they had enjoyed from the Dutch." Yet 
the first permanent settlers in a portion of the valley 
were Germans from the palatinate, who came hither in 
1712-13, after stopping on the Hudson.f Sir William 
Johnson, himself an Irishman, took great pains to 
gather British colonists about him, and was in large 
measure successful, and the Scotch colony was influ- 
ential and self-asserting. As from the Long House of 
the Iroquois, waters flow in all directions, so into it 
tended currents of population from all directions. The 
Dutch proprietors could not stop this cosmopolitan 
drift. The German immigration prevented tendencies 
so distinctively British as prevailed in other colonies. 
The large share of northern New York in the Anglo- 
French wars, continued its traditional importance. J 

Here between Ontario and Champlain, it was decided 
that the nascent State should be cosmopolitan and not 
Dutch. I Here in large part it was decided, if not that 
the political relations of the State should be British 
and not French, that the language, the civilization, the 

*Brodhead's History of New York, vol. 1, p. 744. 

f Certain Germans who had sought England for a refuge, it is said, became 
interested in the Mohawks who visited Queen Anne, and were by the chiefs 
induced to migrate to America. 

£ Ex-Governor Horatio Seymour, in his lecture on the History and Topog- 
raphy of New York, has admirably presented the relations of the State, 
growing out of its natural situation. 

|| August 1, 1802, Rev. John Taylor, a missionary from New England,, 
visited Utica on his way west, and says of it : " Utica appears to be a mixed 
mass of discordant materials. Here may be found people of ten or twelve 
different nations, and of almost all religions and sects." 



41 

social tendencies should be cast in the mold of Hampden 
and Milton and Shakspeare, rather than in those of Paris 
and Versailles. This whole region had indeed been 
included in New France. Louis XVI and his minis- 
ters watched events here with especial interest, and 
naturally desired that Britain should not continue to 
possess what France had lost. If St. Leger was 
beaten where Frontenac and Montcalm had swept in 
victory, the infant republic, with French aid, might 
stand and grow a rival to British power. Here large 
impetus was given to the decision that this continent 
should be American and not British. 

The location of Oriskany rendered the battle con- 
trollino; in determining the attitude of the Mohawk 
valley, and in putting an end to British hopes of loyal- 
ist uprising there. It shattered aud rendered useless 
the British alliance with the Indians. It helped to in- 
sure French co-operation with the colonies,. and brought 
us the fleet of D'Estaing the next summer. It paved the 
way to the victory over Burgoyne. Without Oriskany, 
there could have been no Saratoga. Herkimer laid in 
blood the corner-stone of that temple of unwinged 
victory, which was completed on the heights where 
Burgoyne surrendered. Afterwards through the long 
contest, although local raids and savage butcheries 
were perpetrated, no operations of grand war were 
attempted in these historic regions. While nominally 
British purposes were unchanged, the colonies north 
and east of New York bay escaped the ravages of 
broad conflict, and entered upon their career of national 
growth and prosperity. 

CONCLUSION. 

Extravagaut eulogy never honors its object. Per- 
sistent neglect of events which have molded history, is 



42 

not creditable to those who inherit the golden fruits. 
We do not blush to grow warm over the courage 
which at Plataea saved Greece forever from Persian 
invasion. Calm men praise the determination which at 
Lepanto, set limits to Turkish conquests in Europe. 
Waterloo is the favorite of rhetoric anions: Enoflish- 
speaking people. But history no less exalts the Spartan 
three hundred who died at Thermopylae, and poetry 
immortalizes the six hundred whose leader blundered 
at Balaklava. Signally negligent have the people of 
Central New York been to the men and the deeds that 
on the soil we daily tread, have controlled the tides of 
nations, and fashioned the channels of civilization. 
After a hundred years we begin to know what the 
invasion of St. Leger meant. A century lifts up Nicholas 
Herkimer, if not into a consummate general, to the plane 
of sturdy manliness and of unselfish, devoted patriot- 
ism, of a hero who knew how to fight and how to 
die. History begins to appreciate the difficulties which 
surrounded Philip Schuyler, and to see that he appeared 
slow in bringing out the strength of a patriot State, 
because the scales of destiny were weighted to hand 
New York over to Johnson and Burgoyne and Clinton 
and King George. His eulogy is, that when popular 
impatience, and jealousies in other colonies, and ambi- 
tious in the army, and cliques in Congress, superseded 
him in the command of the northern armies of the 
United States, he had already stirred up the Mohawk 
valley to the war blaze at Oriskauy ; he had relieved 
Fort Stanwix and sent St. Lester in disgraceful retreat ; 
Bennington had been fought and won ;* he had thus 
shattered the British alliance with the Indians, and had 



* General Gates took command of the army before Burgoyne, August 
14, 1777, but had nothing to do with Bennington. 



43 

trampled out the toiy embers in the Mohawk valley ; 
lie had gathered above Albany an army flushed with 
victory and greatly superior to Burgoyne's forces in 
numbers, and it was well led and adequate to the task 
before it. 

Oriskany, the Indians interpret, is the Place of 
Nettles. Out of that nettle danger, Herkimer plucked 
for the Mohawk valley, and through it for the republic, 
the flower safety. In that Place of Nettles, Central 
New York may find much to stir it to deeper knowl- 
edge of its history and its relations, to greater anxiety 
to be just to those who have served it worthily, to 
keener "appreciation of the continental elevation which 
nature has reared for us, and upon which we may build 
a structure more symmetrical and more beneficent than 
the Parthenon, — a free State based on equal justice, 
strong in the virtue of its citizens, devoted to all that 
is best and most beautiful in mankind, inspired by the 
noblest achievements in history, manfully meeting the 
humblest duties, and struggling upward to the highest 
ideals. Names and deeds that live a hundred years, 
change hills and valleys into classic ground. The cen- 
tury which runs backward is only the dawn of those 
which look into the future. Central New York must 
have a worthy career before it to justify the traditions 
of the Long House of the Iroquois ; of the real states- 
manship of the League of the Six Nations, and of the 
eloquence of their chief men; of the Jesuit missiona- 
ries and the Samuel Kirklands and the Lutheran cler- 
gymen, who consecrated its waters and its soil and its 
trees; of those who saved it from French occupation; 
of those who kept out the Stuarts and drove out King 
George. 



APPENDIX 



1. The Name Oriskany. (Page 3.) 

The orthography of Oriskany has been settled by custom contrary to In- 
dian euphony. St. Leger writes it Oriska ; Colonel Willett changes the 
initial to Eriska ; Captain Deygart (Clinton manuscripts) writes Orisco. In 
London documents, (Colonial History, vol. 8, p. 690,) we find Oriske. 

In a " Chorographical map of the Province of New York," London, 1779, 
is Ochriscany Patent granted to T. Wenham & Co. In a map of 1790, this 
becomes Ochriskeney (Documentary History of New York, volume 1.) 

In his League of the Iroquois, L. H. Morgan gives the Indian derivation, 
showing that the name comes from the Mohawk dialect, and the last syllable 
is a corruption. In the several dialects the form is as follows : 

Seneca dialect, O-his-heh ; Cayuga, O-his-ha ; Onondaga, O-his-ka ; Tusca- 
rora, Ose-hase-keh ; Oneida, Ole-hisk ; Mohawk, Ole-his-ka ; the significance 
in each case being the Place of Nettles. 

2. Building of Fort Stanwix. (Page 8.) 

The building of Fort Stanwix in 1758 is recorded in Documentary History 
of New York, vol. 4, p. 323, and a topographical map is given of the country 
between the Mohawk and Wood Creek, from an actual survey in November, 
1758. General Abercrombie's order to General Stanwix to erect the fort is 
there preserved. Fort Williams had at an earlier day stood in the neigh- 
borhood. Fort Stanwix was not finished in 1700, when M. Pouchot passed 
it. (Hough's Translation of his Memoir, p. 138.) 

Out of compliment to General Philip Schuyler the attempt was made to 
change the name of this Fort, but old Peter Schuyler had given the title to 
the old Fort at Utica, and Stanwix has clung to the historic work at Rome. 

3. Peace Councils at Fort Stanwix. (Page 8.) 

In 1768 it had been the scene of an important council, when thirty-two 
hundred Indians of the Six Nations assembled to treat with representatives 
of Virginia, Pennsylvania and New Jersey. Sir William Johnson then closed 
the " Treaty of Fort Stanwix." The original record will be found in the 
Documents relating to the Colonial History of New York, vol. 8, p. Ill and 
follow ii!g. 

In 1784 a grand council was held here between the chiefs of the Six 
Nations and Commissioners on the part of the United States, and a treaty 
of peace was negotiated. 

4. St. Leger's Troops Designated in London. (Page 11.) 

This extract from an official letter from Lord George Germaine to Gen- 
eral Carleton, dated Whitehall, twenty-sixth March, 1777, is taken from the 



45 

" State of the Expedition from Canada," published in London, 1780, by Gen. 
eral Burgoyne in his own defense : " With a view of quelling the rebellion 
as quickly as possible, it is become highly necessary that the most speedy 
junction of the two armies should be effected, and therefore, as the security 
and good government of Canada absolutely require your presence there, it is 
the King's determination to leave about 3,000 men under your command, and 
to employ the remainder of your army upon two expeditions, the one under 
the command of Lieutenant General Burgoyne, who is to force his way to 
Albany, and the other under command of Lieutenant Colonel St. Leger, who 
is to make a diversion on the Mohawk River. 

"•As this plan can not be advantageously executed without the assistance of 
Canadians and Indians, His Majesty strongly recommends it to your care to 
furnish both expeditions with good and sufficient bodies of those men ; and 
I am happy in knowing that your influence among them is so great that there 
can be no room to apprehend that you will find it difficult to fullfil His Maj. 
esty's expectations. * * * * * * 

It is the King's further pleasure that you put under the command of Colonel 
St. Leger: 

Detachment from the 8th Regiment 100 

Detachment from the 34th Regiment 100 

Sir John Johnson's regiment of New York 133 

Hanan Chaff eurs 342 

675 

together with a sufficient number of Indians and Canadians, and after having 
furnished him with proper artillery, stores, provisions and every other nec- 
essary article for his expedition, and secured to him every assistance in your 
power to afford and procure, you are to give him orders to proceed forthwith 
to and down to the Mohawk river to Albany and put himself under the com- 
mand of Sir William Howe. 

" I shall write to Sir William Howe from hence by the first packet ; but you 
will nevertheless endeavor to give him the earliest intelligence of this meas- 
ure, and also direct Lieutenant General Burgoyne and Lieutenant Colonel St. 
Leger to neglect no opportunity of doing the same, that they may receive in- 
structions from Sir William Howe. You will at the same time inform them 
that, until they shall have received orders from Sir William Howe, it is His 
Majesty's pleasure that they act as exigencies may require, and in such man 
ner as they shall judge most proper for making an impression on the rebels 
and bringing them to obedience ; but that in so doing they must never lose, 
view of their intended junctions with Sir William Howe as their principal, 
objects. 

" In case Lieutenant General Burgoyne or Lieutenant Colonel St. Leger 
should happen to die or be rendered, through illness, incapable of executing 
these great trusts, you are to nominate to their respective commands such 
officer or officers as you shall think best qualified to supply the place of those 
whom- His Majesty has, in his wisdom, at present appointed to conduct these 
expeditions." 



40 



5. KlRKLAND AND THE INDIANS. (Page 12.) 

Reverend Samuel Kirkland wrote to the committee at Albany, June 9, 
1775, " Colonel Johnson has orders from government (of course the British 
government) to remove the dissenting minister from the Six Nations till the 
difficulties between Great Britain and the colonies are settled. * * All 
he has against me I suppose to be this : A suspicion that I have interpreted 
to the Indians the doings of the Continental Congress, which has undeceived 
and too much opened the eyes of the Indians for Colonel Johnson's purposes. 
I confess to you, gentlemen, that I have been guilty of this, if it be any 
transgression. * * I apprehend my interpreting the doings of the Con- 
gress to their sachems has done more real service to the cause of the country, 
or the cause of truth and justice, than £500 in presents would have effected." 
Jones' Annals of Oneida county, p. 852. 

6. General Schuyler's Fear. (Page 13.) 

In a letter to the Committee of Safety, dated July 24, 1777, General 
Schuyler says : 

"If Bnrgoyne can penetrate to Albany, the force which is certainly com- 
ing by way of Oswego, will find no difficulty in reaching the Mohawk river, 
and being arrived there they will be joined by tories not only, but by every 
person that finds himself capable of removing, and wishes to make his 
paace with the enemy, and by the whole body of the Six Nations." 

7. Sir John Johnson the British Leader at Oriskany. (Page 14.) 

William L. Stone, to whom so much is due for a fair statement of the battle 
of Oriskany, insists that Sir John Johnson was not in the battle at all, nam- 
ing Watts, Butler and Brant, in this order, as leaders. And W. W. Campbell, 
in his Annals of Tryon county, places the " Indians and tories under Brant 
and Butler." Irving in his life of Washington follows these authorities. 
Stone justifies his denial of Johnson's presence in the battle by Colonel Wil- 
lett's assertion in his narrative, that Singleton, one of the prisoners taken in 
the sortie, told him that "Sir John Johnson was with him (Singleton) when 
the camp was attacked." These words of Willett are in the paraphrase by 
Willett's son, (Narrative, page 53,) transformed into a statement that Johnson 
was " in his tent with his coat off, and had not time to put it on before his 
camp was forced." 

In view of the importance of the operations in progress, this statement is 
intrinsically improbable. It is contrad icted by the positive language of St. 
Leger, who, in his Narrative (Burgoyne's Defense) clearly says: "Sir John 
Johnson put himself at the head of the party," which went to Oriskany, 
" and began his march that evening at five o'clock, and met the rebel corps 
at the same hour the next morning." St. Leger attempted a movement 
against the sortie, but he used Lieutenants only as he could not have done if 
Johnson had been in camp. See the tenth section of this Appendix. 

In an official letter from Colonel Daniel Claus, (St. Leger's superintendent 
of Indians.) he distinctly avers: " Sir John Johnson asked leave to join his 
company of light infantry and head the whole, which was granted; Colonel 



47 

Butler and other Indian officers were ordered with the Indians." Colonial 
History, vol. 8, p. 721. 

President Dwight (Travels, vol. 3, p. 194,) who made the battle a study in 
1799, at Whitestown and Rome, says : " Sir John had scarcely left the 
ground to attack General Herkimer." And again after the battle : "At the 
return of Sir John," p. 195. This was the clear understanding of the gen- 
eration to whom about the battle-field and the Port, the fight was as the 
alphabet ; and it has the weight of authority in its favor. 

Indeed, taking the language of St. Leger and Claus together, it is abso- 
lutely incontrovertible. 

8. General Putnam Aids in the Relief. (Page 26.) 

In the Clinton Papers at Albany is the original of the following letter : 

" Peck's Kill, August 14, 1777. 

"Dear Sir: — Received yours of the fourteenth inst. In consequence of it 
and former orders received from General Washington have ordered Colonel 
Cortlandt's and Colonel Livingston's regiments to march immediately to the 
northward to the relief of Fort Schuyler, or as you shall see fit to direct 
them. 

" I wish them a speedy and safe arrival and you most successful enterprise 
against those worse than infernals. 

" With great respect, I am your obedient humble servant, 

" ISRAEL PUTNAM." 
" To his Excellency, Governor Clinton." 

9. Governor Clinton to the Committee op Safety. (Page 34.) 

The following is the text of a letter from Governor George Clinton, copied 
from the original in the State Library at Albany: 

" Albany, August 22, 1777. 

" General Harchheimer is dead of his wounds. His leg was taken off and he 
survived it but a few hours. General Arnold with his party is at Fort Dayton. 
About 100 of the militia of Tryon county only are with him. I have issued 
my positive orders to the officers commanding the respective regiments there 
to detach one-half to join General Arnold's army. Colonels Cortland's and 
Livingston's regiments marched this evening for his further reinforcement. 

" The enemy in that quarter having acquired a considerable accession of 
numbers from Indians and tories, the above measures were rendered neces- 
sary. The garrison, however, by very late accounts, are high in spirits and 
well provided, and I have no doubt we shall in a few days receive the most 
agreeable intelligence from that quarter. From the Oneidas and Tuscaroras, 
whose chieftains are now with General Arnold, we have the fullest assur- 
ance of assistance but have nothing to expect from any other tribes of the Six 
Nations until our successes intimidate them into friendship. Since the affair 
at Bennington the scalping business seems to have ceased." 



48 



10. St. Leger's Own Narrative. (Pages 9, 28.) 

General Burgoyne published in London, in 1780, a defense of his campaign 
in America, under the title : "A State of the Expedition from Canada, as 
laid before the House of Commons." In the Appendix is the following in- 
teresting document : 

"Colonel St. Leger's Account op Occurrences at Port Stanwix." 

" A minute detail of every operation since my leaving La Chine, with the 
detachment entrusted to my care, your excellency will permit me to reserve 
to a time of less hurry and mortification than the present, while I enter into 
the interesting scene before Fort Stanwix, which I invested the third of 
August, having previously pushed forward Lieutenant Bird of the King's 
regiment, with thirty of the King's troops and two hundred Indians, under 
the direction of Captains Hare and Wilson, and the Chiefs Joseph and Bull, 
to seize fast hold of the lower landing place, and thereby cut off the enemy's 
communication with the lower country. This was done with great address 
by the lieutenant, though not attended with the effect I had promised 
mvself. occasioned by the slackness of the Messasagoes. The brigade of 
provisions and ammunition boats I had intelligence of, being arrived and 
disembarked before this party had taken post. 

"The fourth and fifth were employed in making arrangements for opening 
Wood Creek, (which the enemy, with the indefatigable labor of one hundred 
and fifty men, for fourteen days, had mo3t effectually choaked up,) and the 
making a temporary road from Pine Ridges, upon Fish Creek, sixteen miles 
from the fort, for a present supply of provision and the transport of our 
artillery ; the first was effected by the diligence and zeal of Captain Bouville, 
assisted by Captain Harkimer, of the Indian department, with one hundred 
and ten men, in nine days; while Lieutenant Lundy, acting as assistant 
quarter-master general, had rendered the road in the worst of weather, 
sufficiently practicable to pass the whole artillery and stores, with seven 
days' provision, in two days. 

"On the fifth, in the evening, intelligence arrived by my discovering 
parties on the Mohawk river, that a reinforcement of eight hundred militia, 
conducted by General Herkimer, were on their march to relieve the garrison, 
and were actually at that instant at Oriska, an Indian settlement, twelve 
miles from the fort. The garrison being apprised of their march by four 
men, who were seen to enter the fort in the morning, through what was 
thought an impenetrable swamp, I did not think it prudent ,to wait for them, 
and thereby subject myself to be attacked by a sally from the garrison in the 
rear, while the reinforcement employed me in front. I therefore determined 
to attack them on the march, either openly or covertly, as circumstances 
should offer. At this time, I had not two hundred and fifty of the King's 
troops in camp; the various and extensive operations I was under an abso- 
lute necessity of entering into, having employed the rest ; and therefore 
could not send above eighty white men, rangers and troops included, with 
the whole corps of Indians. Sir John Johnson put himself at the head of 
this party, and began his march that evening at five o'clock, and met the 
rebel corps at the same hour the next morning. The impetuosity of the 



49 

Indians is not to be described on the sight of the enemy (forgetting the judi- 
cious disposition formed by Sir John, and agreed to by themselves, which 
was to suffer the attack to begin with the troops in front, while they should 
be on both flanks and rear,) they rushed in, hatchet in hand, and thereby 
gave the enemy's rear an opportunity to escape. In relation to the victory, 
it was equally complete, as if the whole had fallen ; nay, more so, as the two 
hundred who escaped only served to spread the panic wider ; but it was not 
so with the Indians ; their loss was great, (I must be understood Indian 
computation, being only about thirty killed and the like number wounded, 
and in that number some of their favorite chiefs and confidential warriors 
were slain.) On the enemy's side, almost all their principal leaders were 
slain. General Herkimer has since died of his wounds. It is proper to 
mention, that the four men detached with intelligence of the march of the 
reinforcement, set out the evening before the action, and consequently the 
enemy could have no account of the defeat, and were in possession only of 
the time appointed for their arrival ; at which, as I suspected, they made a 
sally with two hundred and fifty men toward Lieutenant Bird's post, to 
facilitate the entrance of the relieving corps, or bring on a general engage- 
ment, with every advantage they could wish. 

" Captain Hoyes was immediately detached to cut in upon their rear, while 
they engaged the lieutenant. Immediately upon the departure of Captain 
Hoyes, having learned that Lieutenant Bird, misled by the information of a 
cowardly Indian, that Sir John was pressed, had quitted his post to march to 
his assistance, I marched the detachment of the King's regiment, in support of 
Captain Hoyes, by a road in sight of the garrison, which, with executive fire 
from his party, immediately drove the enemy into the fort, without any further 
advantage than frightening some squaws and pilfering the packs of the 
warriors which they left behind them. After this affair was over, orders 
were immediately given to complete a two-gun battery, and mortar beds , 
with three strong redoubts in their rear, to enable me, in case of another 
attempt, to relieve the garrison by their regimented troops, to march out a 
larger body of the King's troops. 

"Captain Lernoult was sent with one hundred and ten men to the lower 
landing place, where he established himself with great judgment and 
strength, having an enclosed battery of a three-pounder opposed to any sally 
from the fort, and another to the side of the country, where a relief must 
approach ; and the body of his camp deeply entrenched and abbatised. 

" When by the unabating labor of officers and men, (the smallness of our 
numbers never admitting of a relief, or above three hours' cessation for sleep 
or cooking,) the batteries and redoubts were finished, and new cheeks and 
axle-trees made for the six-pounders, those that were sent being reported 
rotten and unserviceable. 

" It was found that our cannon had not the least effect upon the sod-work 
of the fort, and that our royals had only the power of teazing, as a six-inch 
plank was a sufficient security for their powder magazine, as we learnt from 
the deserters. At this time Lieutenant Glenie, of the artillery, whom I ap- 
pointed to act as assistant engineer, proposed a conversion of the royals (if 
I may use the expression) into howitzers. The ingenuity and feasibility of 
this measure striking me very strongly, the business was set about immedi- 



50 

ately, and soon executed, when it was found that nothing prevented their op- 
erating with the desired effect but the distance, their chambers being too 
small to hold a sufficiency of powder. There was nothing now to be done 
but to approach the town by sap to such a distance that the rampart might 
be brought within their practice, at the same time all materials were prepar- 
ing to run a mine under their most formidable bastion. 

" In the midst of these operations intelligence was brought in by our 
scouts of a second corps of 1,000 men being on their march. The same zeal 
no longer animated the Indians ; they complained of our thinness of troops 
and their former losses. I immediately called a council of the chiefs ; en- 
couraged them as much as I could ; promised to lead them on myself, and 
bring into the field 300 of the best troops. They listened to this, and prom- 
ised to follow me, and agreed that I should reconnoitre the ground properest 
for the field of battle the next morning, accompanied by some of their chief 
warriors to settle the plan of operations. When upon the ground appointed 
for the field of battle, scouts came in with the account of the first number 
swelled to 2,000 ; immediately after a third, that General Burgoyne's army 
was cut to pieces, and that Arnold was advancing by rapid and forced marches 
with 3,000 men. It was at this moment I began to suspect cowardice in 
some and treason in others ; however, I returned to camp, not without hopes, 
with the assistance of my gallant coadjutor, Sir John Johnson, and the in- 
fluence of the superintending colonels, Glaus and Butler, of inducing them 
to meet the enemy. A council, according to their custom, was called, to 
know r their resolutions, before the breaking up of which I learned that 200 
were already decamped. In about an hour they insisted that I should re- 
treat, or they would be obliged to abandon me. I had no other party to 
take, and a hard party it was to troops who crmld do nothing without them, 
to yield to their resolves ; and therefore proposed to retire at night, sending 
on before my sick, wounded, artillery, &c, down the Wood Creek, covering 
them by our line of march. 

" This did not fall in with their views, which were no less than treacher- 
ously committing ravage upon their friends, as they had lost the opportu- 
nity of doing it upon their enemies. To effect this they artf ully caused mes- 
sengers to come in, one after the other, with accounts of the near approaches 
of the rebels ; one and the last affirmed that they were within two miles of 
Captain Lernoult's post. Not giving entire credit to this, and keeping to 
my resolution of retiring by night, they grew furious and abandoned ; seized 
upon the officers' liquor and cloaths, in spite of the efforts of their servants, 
and became more formidable than the enemy we had to expect. I now 
thought it time to call in Captain Lernoult's post, retiring with the troops in 
camp to the ruined fort called William, in the front of the garrison, not 
only to wait the enemy if they thought proper to sally, but to protect the 
boats from the fury of the savages, having sent forward Captain Hoyes with 
his detachment, with one piece of cannon, to the place where Bull Fort 
stood, to receive the troops who waited the arrival of Captain Lernoult. 
Most of the boats were escorted that night beyond Canada Creek, where no 
danger was to be apprehended from the enemy. The creek at this place, 
bending from the road, has a deep cedar swamp between. Every attention 
was now turned to the mouth of the creek, which the enemy might have 
possessed themselves of by a rapid march by the Oneyda Castle. At this 



51 

place the whole of the little army arrived by twelve o'clock at night, and 
took post in such a manner as to have no fears of any thing the enemy 
could do. Here we remained till three o'clock next morning, when the boats 
which could come up the creek arrived, or rather that the rascally part of 
all nations of the Indians would suffer to come up ; and proceeded across 
Lake Oneyda to the ruined Fort of Brereton, where I learnt that some boats 
were still laboring down the creek, after being lightened of the best part of 
their freight by the Messasagoes. Captain Lernoult proposed, with a boat 
full of armed men, to repass the lake that night to relieve them from their 
labor, and supply them with provision. This transaction does as much honor 
to the humanity as to the gallantry of this valuable officer. 

" On my arrival at the Onondago Falls I received an answer to my letter 
from Your Excellency, which showed, in the clearest light, the scenes of 
treachery that had been practiced upon me. The messenger had heard in 
deed on his way that they were collecting the same kind of rabble as before , 
but that there was not an enemy within forty miles of Fort Stanwix. 

"Soon after my arrival here I was joined by Captain Lernoult, with the 
men and boats he had been in search of. I mean immediately to send off for 
the use of the upper garrison, all the overplus provisons I shall have, after 
keeping a sufficiency to carry my detachment down, which I mean to do 
with every expedition in my power the moment this business is effected, for 
which purpose I have ordered here the snow. The sloop is already gone 
from this with her full lading. 

" Officers from each corps are sent to Montreal to procure necessaries for 
the men, who are in a most deplorable situation from the plunder of the sav- 
ages, that no time may be lost to join your army. 

" I have the honor to be, with the greatest respect, sir, Your Excellency's 
most obedient and most faithful servant, 

"BARRY ST. LEGER." 

"Oswego, August 27, 1777. 

"His Excellency General Burgoyne. " 

11. British Authority on the Importance of St. Leger's Expedi- 
tion. (Page 31.) 

The first authority on this point is General Burgoyne, who in his paper 
" for conducting the war from the side of Canada," urges the expedition by 
" the Lake Ontario and Oswego to the Mohawk River, which," he says, " as 
a diversion to facilitate every proposed operation, would be highly desirable." 
(Defense, Appendix, p. vi.) 

Second. It will be remarked in the letter of Lord George Germaine, he an- 
nounces " the King's determination " to employ the army in Canada ' ' upon 
two expeditions," one by Burgoyne and the other by St. Leger, thus placing 
both on the same footing. See the extract from the letter in the fourth sec- 
tion of this Appendix, p. 45. 

The third authority to be cited on this point is the British Annual Register 
for 1777, (under the auspices at least of Edmund Burke,) where we read : 
" In these embarrassing and difficult circumstances General Burgoyne re- 
ceived information that Colonel St. Leger had arrived before and was con- 
ducting his operations against Fort Stanwix. He instantly and justly con- 
ceived that a rapid movement forward at this critical period would be of 



02 

utmost importance. If the enemy proceeded up the Mohawk and that St. 
Leger succeeded, he would be liable to get between two tires, or at any rate, 
General Burgoyne's army would get between him and Albany, so that he 
must either stand an action or by passing the Hudson's River, endeavor to 
secure a retreat higher up to the New England provinces. If, on the other 
hand, he abandoned Fort Stanwix to its fate, and fell back to Albany, the 
Mohawk country would of course be entirely laid open, the juncture with 
St. Leger established, and the entire army at liberty and leisure to prescribe 
and choose its future line of operation." 

General Burgoyne in his Defense (p. 102) uses these words : " It will like- 
wise be remembered that Lieutenant Colonel St. Leger was at this time be- 
fore Fort Stanwix ; every hour was pregnant with critical events." 

The History of the Civil War, by an Officer of the (British) Army, Lon- 
don, 1780, p. 384, says: 

" Foitune, which had been hitherto favorable to General Burgoyne, now 
be°"an to withdraw her caresses, and like a flirting female, broke from him in 
the moment of possession." 

Consult also section thirteenth of this Appendix, (p. 53.) 

12. Governor Clinton on the Battle op Oriskany and the Tryon 
County Militia. (Pages, 25, 33, 34.) 

The following important letter is found in the original manuscript in the 
State Library at Albany. It was addressed to the several colonels in Tryon 
county : 

"Headquarters, Half Moon, 22d August, 1777. 

" Sir : While I have the highest sense of the loyalty, valor and bravery of 
the militia of Tryon county, manifested in the victory gained by them under 
the command of their late worthy General Herkimer, for which, as the chief 
magistrate of the free and independent State of New York, they have my 
most hearty thanks, it gives me the greatest pain to be informed that any 
difficulty should arise in their joining the army under General Arnold, and 
thereby enabling him to finish the war in that quarter by raising the siege 
of Fort Schuyler and destroying the enemy's army in that quarter, and re- 
storing peace and safety to the inhabitants of Tryon county. Their noble 
exertions against the common enemy have already gained them the greatest 
honor, their perseverance will secure them peace and safety. In both I am 
greatly interested, and it is my duty and I hereby most positively order that 
you immediately join General Arnold with one-half of your regiment com- 
pletely armed, equipt and accoutred, and march under his command to the 
relief of Fort Schuyler. As soon as the service will admit General 
Arnold will dismiss you. If any are hardy enough to refuse to obey your 
orders given in consequence of this, you are immediately to report the names 
of the same to General Arnold, who will transmit the same to me, that they 
may be dealt with with the utmost rigor of the law. 

" I am your obedient servant, 

"GEORGE CLINTON." 

Frederick Sammons in his manuscript narrative, states that Arnold, after 
lie had relieved the Fort, " directly marched his troops to Stillwater." Sam- 
mons was in this army. He had been off on duty as a scout in the early days 
of August. 



53 

13. The Mohawk Valley at Saratoga. (Pages 34, 37.) 

The "History of the Civil War in America, by an Officer in the British 
Army," Captain Hall, London, 1780, says, p. 397: " The retreat of Colonel 
St. Leger inspired the enemy with fresh ardor, and as they had now no 
longer any thing to fear on the Mohawk river, a numerous and hardy militia 
from that country immediately joined their army in the neighborhood of 
Albany, which now advanced and took post near Stillwater, where they 
were also joined by a body of troops under Arnold, who had, in fact, been 
detached to the relief of Fort Stanwix, though he was at a great distance 
when the finesse of the garrison succeeded in saving the place." 

"Botta's History of the United States" declares specifically: "The suc- 
cesses of the Americans under the walls of Fort Schuyler, (Stanwix,) besides 
having inspired the militia, produced also the other happy effect of enabling 
them, relieved from the fear of invasion in the country upon the Mohawk, 
to unite all their forces against the army of Burgoyne." (Vol. 1. p. 465.) 

In the "History of the war with America, France and Spain, by John 
Andrews, LL. D.," (London, 1786,) vol. 2, p. 402, the case is thus stated: 
"The failure of the expedition against Fort Stanwix, together with the 
defeat of Bennington, were very severe blows to the British interest in those 
parts. They animated the Americans to a surprising degree. They began 
now confidently to promise themselves that General Burgoyne himself would 
share the same fate as his officers." 

General Burgoyne in a letter to Lord Germaine, dated Camp, near Sarato- 
ga, August 20, 1777, says : " I am afraid the expectations of Sir J. Johnson 
greatly fail in the rising of the country. On this side I find daily reason to 
doubt the sincerity of the resolution of the professing loyalists. I have 
about four hundred, but not half of them armed, who may be depended 
upon ; the rest are trimmers, merely actuated by interest. The great bulk 
of the country is undoubtedly with the Congress, in principle and zeal ; and 
their measures are executed with a secrecy and dispatch that are not to be 
equaled." 

General Burgoyne, in his defense, (p. 114,) presents this as a conclusive 
argument in his own behalf : 

"The circumstances of the action at Bennington established a yet more mel- 
ancholy conviction of the fallacy of any dependence upon supposed friends. 
The noble Lord has said, that. ' I never despaired of the campaign before 
the affair at Bennington ; that I had no doubt of gaining Albany, in as short 
a time as the army (in due condition of supply) could accomplish the march.' 
I acknowledge the truth of the assertions in their fullest extent ; all my 
letters at the time show it, I will go further and in one sense apply with the 
noble lord the epithet ' fatal ' to the affair of Bennington. The knowledge I 
acquired of the professors of loyalty was ' fatal ' and put an end to every ex- 
pectation from enterprise, uusustained by dint of force. It would have been 
excess of frenzy to have trusted for sustenance to the plentiful region of 
Albany. Had the march thither been unopposed, the enemy, finding the Brit- 
ish army unsupplied, would only have had to compel the tories to drive the cat- 
tle and destroy the corn, and the capitulation of Albany instead of Saratoga 
must have followed. Would the tories have risen V Why did they not rise 
around Albany and below when they found Mr. Gates' army increasing by 



54 

separate and distinct parties from remote distances? They were better 
qualified by their situation to catch the favorable moment, than I was to 
advise it. Why did they not rise in that populous, and, as supposed, well 
affected district, the German Flats, at the time St. Leger was before Fort 
Stanwix ? A critical insurrection from any one point to create diversion would 
probably have secured the success of the campaign. But to revert to the 
reasons against a rapid march after the affair of Bennington. It was then 
also known that by the false intelligence respecting the strength of Fort 
Stanwix, the infamous behavior of the Indians and the want of the promised 
co-operation of the loyal inhabitants, St. Leger had been obliged to retreat. 
The first plausible motive in favor of hazardous haste, the facilitating his 
descent of the Mohawk, was at an end." 

It is pleasant to add to this testimony the following : 

Council of Safety to John Hancock, President of Congress. 

" Kingston, August 26, 1777. 
" Sir : I have the pleasure of transmitting to you the letters of General 
Schuyler and Governor Clinton, giving us the agreeable intelligence of the 
raising of the siege of Fort Schuyler. The gallantry of the commander of 
the garrison of that Fort and the distinguished bravery of General Herki- 
mer and his militia, have already been productive of the most desirable con- 
sequences. The brave and more fortunate General Stark with his spirited 
countrymen hath, as you know, given the enemy a signal coup at Benning" 
ton. The joint result of these providential instances of success hath revived 
the drooping hopes of the desponding and given new vigor to the firm and 
determined. We have therefore the pleasing expectation of compelling Gen- 
eral Burgoyne in his turn to retire. 

" I have the honor to be, &c, 

"PIERRE VAN CORTLANDT." 

14. The British Account of the Affair. (Pages 28, 34, 35.) 

The British Annual Register for 1777 makes the following statement of 
the affair, which has become the standard British history : 

" St. Leger's attempt upon Fort Stanwix (now named by the Americans 
Fort Schuyler,) was soon after its commencement favored by a success so 
signal as would, in other cases and a more fortunate season, have been de- 
cisive, as to the fate of a stronger and more important fortress. General 
Herkimer, a leading man of that country, was marching at the head of eight 
or nine hundred of the Tryon county militia, with a convoy of provisions, to 
the relief of the fort. St. Leger, well aware of the danger of being attacked 
in his trenches, and of withstanding tli3 whole weight of the garrison in some 
particular and probably weak point at the same instant, judiciously detached 
Sir John Johnson with some regulars, the whole or part of his own regiment 
and the savages, to lie in ambush in the wood and interrupt the enemy upon 
their march. 

" It should seem by the conduct of th.9 militia and their leader, that they 
were not only totally ignorant of all military duties, but that they had even 
never hear! by report of the nature of an Indian war, or of that peculiar 



service in the woods, to which from its nature and situation this country was 
at all times liable. Without examination of their ground, without a recon- 
noitering or flanking party, they plunged blindly into the trap that was laid 
for their destruction. Being thrown into a sudden and inevitable disorder, 
by a near and heavy fire on almost all sides, it was completed by the Indians 
who, instantly pursuing their fire, rushed in upon their broken ranks and 
made a most dreadful slaughter amongst them with their spears and hatchets. 
Notwithstanding their want of conduct the militia shewed no want of cour- 
age in their deplorable situation. In the midst of such extreme danger, and 
so bloody an execution rendered still more terrible by the horrid appearance 
and demeanor of the principal actors, they recollected themselves so far as 
to recover an advantageous ground, which enabled them after to maintain a 
sort of running fight, by which about one-third of their number was pre- 
served. 

" The loss was supposed to be on their side about four hundred killed, and 
half that number prisoners. It was thought of the greater consequence, as 
almost all those who were considered as the principal leaders and instigators 
of rebellion in that country were now destroyed. The triumph and exulta - 
tion were accordingly great, and all opposition from the militia in that coun- 
try was supposed to be at an end. The circumstance of old neighborhood 
and personal knowledge between many of the parties, in the present rage and 
animosity of faction could by no means be favorable to the extension of 
mercy ; even supposing that it might have been otherwise practiced with 
prudence and safety, at a time when the power of the Indians was rather 
prevalent, and that their rage was implacable. For according to their com- 
putation and ideas of loss the savages had purchased this victory exceeding 
dearly, thirty-three of their number having been slain and twenty-nine 
wounded, among whom were several of their principal leaders and of their 
most distinguished and favorite warriors. The loss accordingly rendered 
them so discontented, intractable and ferocious that the service was greatly 
affected by their ill disposition. The unhappy prisoners were, however, its 
first objects, most of whom they inhumanly butchered in cold blood. The 
New Yorkers, rangers and other troops were not without loss in this action- 

" On the day, and probably during the time of this engagement, the gar- 
rison, having received intelligence of the approach of their friends, endeav- 
ored to make a diversion in their favor by a vigorous and well-conducted 
sally, under the direction of Colonel Willet, their second in command. Willet 
conducted his business with ability and spirit. He did considerable mischief 
in the camp, brought off some trophies, no inconsiderable spoil, some of 
which consisted in articles that were greatly wanted, a few prisoners, and 
retired with little or no loss. He afterwards undertook, in company with 
another officer, a much more perilous expedition. They passed by night 
through the besiegers' works, and in contempt of the danger and cruelty of 
the savages, made their way for fifty miles through pathless woods and un- 
explored morasses, in order to raise the country and bring relief to the fort. 
Such an action demands the praise even of an enemy. 

" Colonel St. Leger left no means untried to profit of his victory by intimi- 
dating the garrison. He sent verbal and written messages stating their 
hopeless situation, the utter destruction of their friends, the impossibility of 
their obtaining relief, as General Burgoyne, after destroying everything in 



5G 

his power, was now at Albany receiving- the submission of all the adjoining 
counties, and by prodigiously magnifying his own force. He represented 
that in this state of things if through an incorrigible obstinacy, they should 
continue hopeless and fruitless defense, they would according to the prac- 
tice of the most civilized nations be cut off from all conditions and every 
hope of mercy. But he was particularly direct upon the pains lie had taken 
in softening the rage of the Indians from their late loss and obtaining from 
them security that in case of an immediate surrender of the fort every man 
of the garrison should be spared, while on the other hand they declared with 
utmost bitter execrations that if they met with any further resistance they 
would not only massacre the garrison, but that every man, woman and child 
in the Mohawk country would necessarily, and however against his will, fall 
sacrifices to the fury of the savages. This point, he said, he pressed entirely 
on the score of humanity. He promised on his part, in case of an immediate 
surrender, every attention which a humane and generous enemy could give. 
The Governor, Colonel Gansevoort, behaved with great firmness. He replied 
that he had been entrusted with the charge of that garrison by the United 
States of America ; that he would defend the trust committed to his care at 
every hazard and to the utmost extremity, and that he should not at all 
concern himself about any consequences that attended the discharge of his 
duty. It was shrewdly remarked in the fort that half the pains would not 
have been taken to display the force immediately without or the success at a 
distance if they bore any proportion at all to the magnitude in which they 
were represented. 

"The British commander was much disappointed in the state of the fort- 
It was stronger, in better condition, and much better defended than he ex- 
pected. After great labor in his approaches he found his artillery deficient, 
being insufficient in weight to make any considerable impression. The only 
remedy was to bring his approaches so near that they must take effect, 
which he set about with the greatest diligence. 

"In the mean time the Indians continued sullen and untractable. Their 
late losses might have been cured by certain advantages, but the misfortune 
was they had yet got no plunder, and their prospect of getting any seemed 
to grow every day fainter. It is the peculiar characteristic of that people to 
exhibit in certain instances degrees of courage and perseverauce which shock 
reason and credibility, and to portray in others the greatest irresolution and 
timidity, with a total want of that constancy which might enable them for 
any length of time to struggle with difficulty. 

" Whilst the commander was carrying on his operations with the utmost 
industry the Indians received a flying report that Arnold was coming with 
1,000 men to relieve the fort. The commander endeavored to hasten them, 
by promising to lead them himself, to bring all his best troops into action, 
and by carrying their leaders out to mark a field of battle, and the flattery 
of consulting them upon the intended plans of operation. Whilst he was 
thus endeavoring to soothe their temper and to revive their flagging spirits, 
other scouts arrived with intelligence, probably contrived in part by them- 
selves, which first doubled and afterwards trebled the number of the enemy, 
with the comfortable addition that Burgoyne's army was entirely cut to 
pieces. 



57 

" The Colonel returned to camp, and called a council of their chief s hoping 
that by the influence which Sir John Johnson and Superintendents Claus and 
Butler, had over them, they might still be induced to make a stand. He 
was disappointed. A part of the Indians decamped whilst the council was 
sitting and the remainder threatened peremptorily to abandon him if he did 
not immediately retreat. 

'•The retreat was of course precipitate, or it was rather, in plain terms, a 
flight, attended with disagreeable circumstances. The tents, with most of 
the artillery, fell into the hands of the garrison. It appears by the Colonel's 
own account that he was as apprehensive of danger from the fury of his 
savage allies, as he could be from the resentment of his American enemies. 
It also appears from the same authority that the Messasagoes, a nation of 
savages to the West, plundered several of the boats belonging to the army. 
By the American accounts, which are in part confirmed by others, it is said 
that they robbed the officers of their baggage and of every other article to 
which they took any liking, and the army in general of their provisions. 
They also say that a few miles distance from the camp they first stripped 
of their arms and afterwards murdered with their own bayonets, all those 
British, German and American soldiers, who from any inability to keep up, 
fear or any other cause, were separated from the main body. 

"The state of the fact with respect to the intended relief of the fort is, 
that Arnold had advanced by the way of Half Moon up the Mohawk river 
with 2,000 men for that purpose ; and that for the greater expedition he had 
quitted the main body and arrived by forced marches through the woods, 
with a detachment of 900 at the fort, on the twenty-fourth in the evening, 
two days after the siege had been raised. So that upon the whole the 
intractableness of the Indians with their watchful apprehension of danger 
probably saved tbem from a chastisement which would not have been 
tenderly administered. 

" Nothing could have been more untoward in the present situation of 
affairs than the unfortunate issue of this expedition. The Americans repre- 
sented this and the affair at Bjnnington as great and glorious victories. 
Nothing could exceel their exultation and confidence. Ganesvoort and 
Willet, with General Stark and Colonel Warner, who had commanded at 
Bennington, were ranked among those who were considered as the saviours 
of their country. The northern militia began now to look high and to forget 
all distinctions between themselves and regular troops. As this confidence, 
opinion and pride increased, the apprehension of General Burgoyne's army 
of course declined, until it soon came to be talked of with indifference and 
contempt, and even its fortune to be publicly prognosticated." 

The account in Andrews' History of the War in America, (London, 1786,) 
is a simple condensation from the Register. The Dublin History borrows 
the identical words. 

The History of an "Officer of the Army," London, 1780, has no new 
authorities, and sheds no different light. 

The " Impartial History of the Civil War," London, 1780, treats the affair 
in the same spirit. 

William Gordon, D. D., in his " History of the Rise, Progress and Estab- 
lishment of the Independence of the United States of America," (London, 
1788,) claims to have had access to the papers of Washington and other 



58 

American generals, and writes with the freshness of gossip. His story of 
Oriskany and Fort Stanwix has this character, and he states that he had some 
of his facts from Reverend Samuel Kirkland. Besides the references else- 
where made, he adds only a few touches of color to this local chronicle. 

15. St. Leger's Boast and Confidence. (Page 36.) 

The following extract of a letter from Lieutenant Colonel St. Leger to 
Lieutenant General Burgoyne, brought through the woods by an Indian, dated 
before Fort Stanwix, August 11, 1777, is copied from Almon's "American 
Remembrancer for 1777," p. 392 : 

"After combating the natural difficulties of the river St. Lawrence and the 
artificial ones the enemy threw in my way at Wood Creek, I invested Fort 
Stanwix the third instant. On the fifth I learnt from discovering parties on 
the Mohawk river that a body of one thousand militia were on their march 
to raise the siege. On the confirmation of this news I moved a large body of 
Indians, with some troops the same night, to lay in ambuscade for them on 
their march. They fell into it. The completest victory was obtained ; above 
four hundred lay dead on the field, amongst the number of whom were 
almost all the principal movers of rebellion in that country. There are six 
or seven hundred men in the fort. The militia will never rally ; all that I 
am to apprehend, therefore, that will retard my progress in joining you, is a 
reinforcement of what they call their regular troops, by the way of Half 
Moon, up the Mohawk river. A diversion, therefore, from your army by that 
quarter will greatly expedite my junction with either of the grand armies." 

The Remembrancer for that year gives as a letter from Sir Guy Carleton a 
statement " That Colonel St. Leger, finding Fort Stanwix too strongly for- 
tified and the garrison too numerous to be taken by assault, and the Indians 
being alarmed by a false report of the approach of a large body of the rebel 
continental troops, he had given over the attempt of forcing a passage down 
the Mohawk river, and returned to Montreal, from whence he had proceeded 
to Ticonderoga, intending to join Lieutenant General Burgoyne by that route." 

16. Bennington Counted Before Oriskany in Time. (Page 36.) 

Stedman's (British) History of the Revolution, p. 353, says : 
" The defeat of Colonel Baum, Breyman and St. Leger enervated the British 
cause in no extraordinary degree. There were many of the inhabitants not 
attached to either party by principle, and who had resolved to join them- 
selves to that which should be successful. These men, after the disasters 
at Bennington and Stanwix, added a sudden and powerful increase of strength 
to the Americans." 

17. Colonel Claus' Letter to Secretary Knox at London. 
(Pages 14, 23, 25.) 

In the eighth volume of the Documents relating to the Colonial History of 
New York, (p. 718 and following,) is an official letter from Colonel Daniel 
Claus, written from Montreal, October 16, 1777, which was brought to light 
after all the histories of the Battle of Oriskany, which are generally familiar, 
w^re written. It is necessary to complete the record. Colonel Claus writes-' 

" Sir: I take the liberty to give you such an account of the expedition I 
was appointed to this campaign, as my capacity will permit me, and which 
though tedious, I used all the conciseness in my power. 



59 

"On my arrival at Quebec the first of June, Sir Guy Carleton being at 
Montreal, my letter from my Lord George Germaine was forwarded to him 
by Lieutenant Governor Cramahe that day, and myself arrived there a few 
days after. I waited upon Sir Guy, who acknowledged the receipt of the 
letter, but said nothing further upon it, than addressing himself to Captain 
Tice, who was in England with Joseph (Brant,) and there at the Levy, that 
I had now the command of him and those Indian officers and Indians that 
were destined for Brigadier St. Leger's expedition. A day or two after I 
waited on him again for his orders and instructions, and asked what rank 
I was to have on the expedition. He replied on the latter ; that it could not 
be settled here. ********** 

" Some time before our march I informed myself of Sir Guy Carleton, of 
the state Fort Stanwix was in ; he told me that by the latest accounts from 
Colonel Butler, there were sixty men in a picketed place. Determined to 
be sure, I despatched one John Hare, an active Indian officer, with the 
Mohawk chief John Odiseruney, to collect a small party of Indians at 
Swegachy and reconnoitre Fort Stanwix, as well as possible and bring off 
some prisoners if they could. 

. " On the twenty-third of June, I set out from La Chine near Montreal, 
The Brigadier who was getting the artillery boats ready to take in two sixes, 
two threes, and four Cohorns, (being' our artillery for the expedition,) was to 
follow the day after ; and proceeded for an island destined for our rendezvous 
in the entrance of Lake Ontario, called Buck island, in company with Sir 
John Johnson and his regiment. In my way thither I collected a body of a 
hundred and fifty Misisagey and Six Nation' Indians. All the Indians of the 
inhabited part of Canada whom I had under my care for fifteen years, and 
was best acquainted with, were destined for General Burgoyne's army. The 
Misisagey and Six Nations, the Brigadier intended should accompany him in 
an alert to Fort Stanwix, by a short cut through the woods, from a place 
called Salmon Creek on Lake Ontario, about twenty miles from Oswego, in 
order to surprise the garrison and take it with small arms. 

" Between sixty and seventy leagues from Montreal my reconnoitering party 
returned and met me, with five prisoners (one lieutenant) and four scalps, 
having defeated a working party of sixteen rebels as they were cutting 
sod towards repairing and finishing the old fort, which is a regular square, 
and garrisoned by upwards of six hundred men, the repairs far advanced and 
the rebels expecting us, and were acquainted with our strength and route. 
I immediately forwarded the prisoners to the Brigadier who was about fif- 
teen leagues in our rear. On his arrival within a few leagues of Buck Island 
he sent for me, and, talking over the intelligence the rebel prisoners gave, 
he owned that if they intended to defend themselves in that fort our artillery 
was not sufficient to take it. However, he said, he has determined to get 
the truth of these fellows. I told him that having examined them separately 
they agreed in their story. And here the Brigadier had still an opportunity 
and time of sending for a better train of artillery and wait for the junction 
of the Chasseurs, which must have secured us success, as every one will 
allow. However, he was still full of his alert, making little of the prisoners' 
intelligence. 

" On his arrival at Buck Island the eighth of July, he put me in orders as 
superintendent of the expedition and empowered me to act for the best of 
my judgment for His Majesty's service, in the management of the Indians 



60 

on the expedition, as well as what regarded their equipment, presents, &c, 
he being an entire stranger thereto. There was then a vessel at the Island 
which had some Indian goods on hoard, which Colonel Butler had procured 
for the expedition, but upon examination I found that almost every one of 
the above articles I demanded at Montreal were deficient and a mere impos- 
sibility to procure them at Buck Island, had I not luckily provided some of 
those articles before I left Montreal at my own risk, and with difficulty 
Brigadier St. Leger found out thirty stand of arms in the artillery stores at 
Swegachy, and I added all my eloquence to satisfy the Indians about the rest. 

" The Brigadier set out from the Island upon his alert the nineteenth of 
July. I having been ordered to proceed to Oswego with Sir John Johnson's 
regiment and a company of Chasseurs lately arrived, there to convene and 
prepare the Indians to join the Brigadier at Fort Stanwix. On my arrival 
at Oswego, twenty-third July, I found Joseph Brant there, who acquainted 
me that his party, consisting of about three hundred Indians, would be in 
that day, and having been more than two months upon service, were desti- 
tute of necessaries, ammunition, and some arms. Joseph at the same time 
complaining of having been very scantily supplied by Colonel Butler with 
ammunition when at Niagara in the spring, although he acquainted Colonel 
Butler of his being threatened with a visit from the rebel General Herkimer, 
of Tryon county, and actually was afterwards visited by him with three hun- 
dred men with him, and five hundred at some distance ; when Joseph had 
not two hundred Indians together, but, resolutely declaring- to the rebel Gen- 
eral that he was determined to act against them for the King, he obliged 
them to retreat with mere menaces, not having twenty pounds of powder 
among his party. 

" The twenty-fourth of July I received an express from Brigadier St. Leger 
.at Salmon Creek, about twenty miles from Oswego, to repair thither with 
what arms and vermilion I had, and that he wished I would come prepared 
for a march through the woods. As to arms and vermilion I had none, but 
prepared myself to go upon the march, and was ready to set off, when Joseplr 
came into my tent and told me that as no person was on the spot to take care 
of the number of Indians with him, he apprehended in case I should leave 
them they would become disgusted, and disperse, which might prevent the 
rest of the Six Nations to assemble, and be hurtful to the expedition, and 
begged I would first represent these circumstances to the Brigadier by letter. 
Brigadier St. Leger mentioned indeed, my going was chiefly intended to quiet 
the Indians with him, who were very drunk and riotous, and Captain Tice, 
who was the messenger, informed me that the Brigadier ordered the Indians 
a quart of rum apiece, which made them all beastly drunk, and in which 
case it is not in the power of man to quiet them. Accordingly I mentioned 
to the Brigadier by letter the consequences that might affect his Majesty's 
Indian interest in case I was to leave so large a number of Indians that were 
come already and still expected. Upon which representation and finding the 
Indians disapproved of the plan, and were unwilling to proceed, the Briga- 
dier came away from Salmon creek and arrived the next day at Oswego with 
the companies of the eighth and thirty-fourth regiments and about two 
hundred and fifty Indians. 

" Having equipped Joseph's party with what necessaries and ammunition I 
had, I appointed the rest of the Six Nations to assemble at the Three Rivers,. 
a convenient placj of rendezvous, and in the way to Fort Stanwix, and 



61 

desired Colonel Butler to follow me with the Indians he brought with him 
from Niagara, and equip them all at the Three Rivers. 

"The twenty-sixth of July left Oswego, and second of August arrived 
with the Brigadier and the greatest part of the troops before Fort Stanwix, 
which was invested the fame evening. The enemy having stopped up a 
narrow river, called Wood Creek, by cutting of trees across it for about 
twenty miles, along which our artillery, provisions and baggage were to pass, 
which passage to cut open required a number of men, as well as cutting a 
road through the woods for twenty-five miles, to bring up the artillery, 
stores, &c, that were immediately wanted, which weakened our small army 
greatly. 

"The third, fourth and fifth the Indians surrounded the fort and fired 
from behind logs and rising grounds, at the garrison, wherever they had an 
object, which prevented them from working at the fortifications in the day. 
The fifth, in the afternoon, accounts were brought by Indians, sent by 
Joseph's sister from Canajoharie, that a body of rebels were on their march 
and would be within ten or twelve miles of our camp at night. A detach- 
ment of about four hundred ludians was ordered to reconnoitre the enemy. 
Sir John Johnson asked leave to join his company of light infantry and head 
the whole, which was granted. Colonel Butler and other Indian officers were 
ordered with the Indians. 

" The rebels having an imperfect account of the number of Indians that 
joined us, (being upward of eight hundred,) not thinking them by one-fourth 
as many, and being sure as to our strength and artillery, (which we learned 
by prisoners,) that they knew it from their emissaries before we left Canada, 
They therefore, on the sixth, marched on, to the number of upwards of eight 
hundred, with security and carelessness. 

" When within six miles of the Fort they were waylaid by our party, 
surprised, briskly attacked, and after a little resistence, repulsed and de- 
feated ; leaving upwards of five hundred killed on the spot, among which 
were their principal officers and ringleaders ; their general was shot through 
the knee, and a few days afterward died of an amputation. 

"We lest Captains Hare and Wilson of the Indians, Lieutenant McDonald 
of Sir John's regiment, two or three privates and thirty-two Indians, among 
which were several Seneka chiefs killed. Captain Watts, Lieutenant Single- 
ton of Sir John's regiment, and thirty-three Indians wounded. 

' During the action when the garrison found the Indians' camp (who went 
out against their reinforcement) empty, they boldly sallied out with three 
hundred men, and two field pieces, and took away the Indians' packs, with 
their cloths, wampum and silver work, "they having gone in their shirts, as 
naked to action ;" and when they found a party advancing from our camp, 
they returned with their spoil, taking with them Lieutenant Singleton and 
a private of Sir John's regiment, who lay wounded in the Indian camp. 

" The disappointment was rather greater to the Indians than their loss, for 
they had nothing to cover themselves at night, or against the weather, and 
nothing in our camp to supply them till I got to Oswego. 

"After this defeat and having got part of our artillery up, some cohorn 
shells were thrown into the Fort, and a few shots fired. A flag then was 
sent with an account of the disaster of their intended relief, and the garrison 
was summoned to surrender prisoners of war, to be inarched down the 
country, leaving baggage, &c, behind, to satisfy the Indians for their losses^ 



62 

"The rebels knowing their strength in garrison, as well as fortification, 
and the insufficiency of our field pieces to hurt them, and apprehensive of 
being massacred by the Indians for the losses they sustained in the action ; 
they rejected the summons and said they were determined to hold out to 
the extremity. 

" The siege then was carried on with as much vigor as possible for nine- 
teen days, but to no purpose. Sir John Johnson proposed to follow the blow 
given to the reinforcement, (who were chiefly Mohawk river people,) to 
march down the country with about two hundred men, and I intended join- 
ing him with a sufficient body of Indians ; but the Brigadier said he could 
not spare the men, and disapproved of it. The inhabitants in general were 
ready (as we afterwards learned) to submit and come in. A flag then was 
sent to invite the inhabitants to submit and be forgiven, and assurance given 
to prevent the Indians from being outrageous ; but the commanding officer 
of the German Flats hearing of it, seized the flag, consisting of Ensign But- 
ler of the Eighth Regiment, ten soldiers and three Indians, and took them 
up as spies. A few days after General Arnold, coming with some cannon 
and a reinforcement, made the inhabitants return to their obedience. The In- 
dians, finding that our besieging the fort was of no effect, our troops but few, 
a reinforcement, as was reported, of fifteen hundred or two thousand men, 
with field pieces by the way, began to be dispirited and fell off by degrees. 
The chiefs advised the Brigadier to retreat to Oswego and get better artillery 
from Niagara, and more men, and so return and renew the siege ; to which 
the Brigadier agreed, and accordingly retreated on the twenty-second of 
August. On our arrival at Oswego the twenty-sixth and examining into the 
state of the troops' necessaries, the men were without shoes and other things 
which only could be got at Montreal, the Brigadier at the same time having 
received a letter from General Burgoyne to join him, either by a march 
through the woods back of Tryon county, (which was impracticable,) or the 
way he came. He adopted the latter on account of procuring necessaries for 
the men. The Indians were as much as possible reconciled to this resolution, 
with a promise that they should be convened as soon as Colonel Butler could 
return from Montreal with some necessaries for them. There being Indian 
traders at Oswego, I saw myself under a necessity to clothe those Indians that 
lost their packs by the rebels at Fort Stanwix, which made them return 
home contented. 

" Thus has an expedition miscarried merely for want of timely and good 
intelligence. For it is impossible to believe that had the Brigadier St. Leger 
known the real state of the fort and garrison of Fort Stanwix, he could pos- 
sibly have proceeded from Montreal without a sufficient train of artillery 
and bis full complement of troops. And yet by what I find, very large sums 
have been expended on account of government at Niagara upon the Indians 
these two years past, and they at the same time kept inactive ; whereas, had 
these presents been properly applied, the Six Nations might not only prevent 
Fort Stanwix from being re-established, but even let not a rebel come near it 
or keep it up ; it being almost in the heart of their country, and they with 
reluctance saw the Crown erect a fort there last war. All the good done by 
the expedition was, that the ringleaders and principal men of the rebels of 
Tryon county were put out of the way ; but had we succeeded it must be of 
vast good effect to the Northern operations, and its miscarrying, I apprehend, 
' to my deep concern, to be the reverse." 



63 



18. Roster of Oriskany. (Page 16, 17.) 

For several weeks in June and July, 1877, the Utica Herald appealed to 
descendants of those engaged in the battle, and to all others, for names to 
make up a Roster of Oriskany, to preserve the names of all persons who 
took part in that important action. As the sum of its efforts, from all 
sources, that journal gathered the following list : 

Roster of Oriskany. 

* Brigadier General Nicholas Herkimer, Danube; Captain George Herki- 
mer, Danube; * Frederick Ayer, (Oyer) Schuyler; % Major Blauvelt, Mo- 
hawk ; f Captain George Henry Bell, Fall Hill; * Joseph Bell, Fall Hill; 
Nicholas Bell, Fall Hill; f Captain John Breadbeg, Palatine; Adam Bell- 
inger; Colonel John Bellinger, Utica; Colonel Peter Bellinger, German 
Flats; \ Lieutenant Colonel Frederick Bellinger, German Flats; * Samuel 
Billington, Palatine, Committee of Safety; Billington, Palatine; 

* Major John Blevin; f Captain Jacob Bowman, Canajoharie; John Boyer; 
Lieutenant Colonel Samuel Campbell, Cherry Valley ; * Lieutenant Robert 
Campbell, Cherry Valley; Major Samuel Clyde, Cherry Valley; Jacob Cast- 
ler; JohnCastler; AdamCassler; Jacob Clemens, Schuyler; Captain A. 
Copeman, Minden ; Richard Coppernoll; Colonel Ebenezer Cox, Canajo- 
harie; William Cox ; * Robert Cruise, Canajoharie; * Benjamin Davis; 

* Captain John Davis, Mohawk; Martin cs Davis, Mohawk; Nicholas De- 
Graff, Amsterdam ; Captain Marx DeMuth, Deerfield ; * Captain Andrew 
Dillenback, Palatine ; John Doxtader, German Flats ; Captain Henry 
Diefendorf, Canajoharie ; Hon (John) Peter Dunckel, Freyspush ; Hon 
Garret Dunckel, Freysbush; Hon Nicholas Dunckel, Freysbush; Fran- 
cis Dunckel, Freysbush; * John Dygert, Committee of Safety; Captain WiL- 
liam Dygert, German Flats; * Major John Eisenlord, Stone Arabia; Peter 
Ehle, Palatine; Jacob Empie, Palatine; Henry Failing, Canajoharie ; Jel- 
les Fonda; Captain Adam Fonda; Valentine Fralick, Palatine; f \ Major 
John Frey, Palatine ; * Captain Christopher P. Fox, Palatine ; Captain 
Christopher W. Fox, Palatine ; Charles Fox, Palatine ; Peter Fox, 
Palatine ; Christopher Fox, Palatine ; George Geortner, Canajoharie ; 
Captain Lawrence Gros, Minden ; *Nicholas Gray, Palatine ; Lieutenant 

Samuel Gray, Herkimer ; Captain Graves ; Captain Jacob Gardi- 

nier, Mohawk ; Lieutenant Samuel Gardinier, Mohawk ; Lieutenant 
Petrus Groot, Amsterdam ; Henry Harter, German Flats ; John Adam 
Hartman, Herkimer; John Adam Helmer, German Flats; * Captain Freder- 
ick Helmer, German Flats; John Heyck, Palatine; Nicholas Hill; Lieu- 
tenant Yost House, Minden ; Christian Huffnail, Minden ; * Lieutenant 
Colonel Abel Hunt, Canajoharie ; Andrew Keller, Palatine ; Jacob 
Keller, Palatine; Solomon Keller, Palatine; * Major Dennis Klap- 
sattle, German Flats; Jacob Klapsattle, German Flats; Peter Kilts, 
Palatine ; Colonel Jacob G. Klock, Palatine ; George Lighthall, Min- 
den ; George Lintner, Minden ; Henry Lonus, Minden; Solomon Long- 
shore, Canajoharie; * Jacob Markell, Springfield; * William Merck- 
ley, Palatine ; John P. Miller, Minden ; Jacob Moyer, (now Myers, 
German Flats ; Lieutenant David McMaster, Florida ; Adam Miller, 
Minden,; Henry Miller, Minden; David Murray, Fonda; Christian 



Nelles ; John D. Nellis, Palatine ; Peter Nestle, Palatine ; * Hon- 
orable Isaac Paris, Palatine, and his son who was also killed ; John 
Niarri Petri, Fort Herkimer; * Lieutenant Dederiah Marx Petkie, 
Herkimer; Doctor William Petry, Fort Herkimer, Committee of Safety; 
f Joseph Petry, Dayton ; * Captain Samuel Pettingill, Mohawk ; 
| Adam Price, Minden; Nicholas Pickard, Minden; Bichard Putnam, Mo- 
hawk; Abraham D. Quackenboss; f Jacob Rachiour, Minden; George 
Raynor, Minden ; Captain Nicholas Rector, Garoga ; John Roof ; John 
Rother ; Mark Raspach, Kingsland ; Henry Sanders, Minden ; Samson 
Sammons, Fonda, Committee of Safety; Jacob Sammons, Fonda; "William 
Schaver ; Ensign John Yost Scholl, Palatine ; * Colonel Saffreness 
Seeber, Canajoharie ; f Captain Jacob Seeber, Canajoharie ; f Lieutenant 
William Seeber, Canajoharie; f Henry Seeber, Canajoharie; * James 
Seeber, Canajoharie ; Lieutenant John Seeber, Minden ; * Audolph See- 
ber, Minden ; Peter Sitz, Palatine ; Rudolph Siebert ; Henry Spencer, 
Indian Interpreter ; Christian Schell, Little Falls ; George Smith, Pala- 
tine ; Colonel Henry Staring, Schuyler ; Captain Rudolph Shoemaker, 
Canajoharie; * Joseph Snell, Snelllmsh, now Manheim ; * Jacob Snell, 
Snellbush; Peter Snell, Snellbush ; George Snell, Snellbush ; *John 
Snell, Stone Arabia ; * John Snell, Jr., Stone Arabia ; * Frederick Snell, 
Snellbush ; Lieutenant Jeremiah Swarts, Mohawk ; John G. Sillenbeck ; 
John Shults, Palatine ; George Shults, Stone Arabia; Peper Summer; 
Adam Thumb, Palatine; Jacob Timmerman, St. Johnsville; Lieutenant 
Henry Timmerman, St. Johnsville ; Henry Thompson, Fultonville ; Lieu- 
tenant Martin C. Van Alstyne, Canajoharie; *John Van Antwerp; 
George Van Deusen, Canajoharie ; Henry Vedder ; f Conrad Vols, (now 
Foltz,) German Flats ; Lieutenant Jacob Vols, German Flats ; * Major Har- 
manus Van Slyck, Palatine; * Major Nicholas Van Slyck; Colonel 
Frederick Vissciier, Mohawk ; Captain John Visscher, Mohawk; \ Lieu- 
tenant Colonel Henry Walradt, German Flats ; Garrett Walrath, 
German Flats; George Walter, Palatine; Lieutenant Colonel Peter 
Waggoner, Palatine; Lieutenant Peter Waggoner, Jr., Palatine; 
George Waggoner, Palatine ; John Waggoner, Palatine ; Jacob Wag- 
ner, Canajoharie ; John Wagner, Canajoharie ; Peter Westerman, Can- 
ajoharie; * John Wollover, Fort Herkimer; Abraham Wollover, Fort. 
Herkimer; f Peter Wollover, Fort Herkimer; * Richard Wollover, 
Fort Herkimer ; Jacob Wever, German Flats ; Peter Jams Weaver, Ger- 
man Flats; Michael Widrick, Schuyler; * Lawrence Wrenkle, Fort 
Herkimer ; f Doctor Moses Younglove, Surgeon ; Captain Robert Yates ; 
f Nicholas Yerdon, Minden. 

The regiments as stated in the text, (page 17,) were raised by districts. 
Try on county had four. The Mohawk district lay lowest down the river. 
Next west, and to the south of the river, was the Canajoharie district, reach- 
ing to Little Falls and to Cherry Valley. Palatine district lay north of the 
river, and extended west from the Mohawk district to Little Falls. The 
district of German Flats and Kingsland included all the territory west of 
Little Falls on both sides of the river. 

Colonel Cox's'regiment had been ordered to Ticonderoga in the preceding 
winter, as the manuscript narrative of Frederick Sammons, states. It is now 
in the possession of Colonel Simeon Sammons, of Fonda, who has kindly 
permitted the writer to peruse it. 

* Killed. t Wounded. X Taken prisoner. 



CONTENTS, 



ADDRESS. 

I. 

Page. 

Tiie Situation before the Battle, 4 

The Object op the Campaign of 1777, 7 

Fort Stanwix and its Garrison, 8 

St. Leger's Invasion, 9 

The Patriot Rising In Tryon County, 13 

The Ambuscade, 14 

General Herkimer's Rally, 15 

General Herkimer's Advance, 17 

The Fight, 18 

The Sortie 22 

The Losses, 23 

The Siege, 25 

The Relief under Arnold's Lead, 26 

St. Leger's Flight, 27 

II. 

The Weight and Measure of the Battle, 28 

The Strategy Historic, 29 

St. Leger's Expedition a Vital Part, 31 

Effect of Oriskany on the Valley and the Indians, 32 

Effect on the Country, 32 

Aims and Estimates on both sides, 34 

Divisions in the Valley : Dangers Averted, 37 

Significance from Location, 38 

Conclusion, 41 

APPENDIX. 

The Name Oriskany, 44 

Building of Fort Stanwix, ,44 

Place of Peace Councils, 44 

St. Leger's Troops Designated in London, 44 



6(3 

klrkland and the indians, 46 

General Schuyler's Fear, 46 

Sir John Johnson the British Leader at Oriskany, 46 

General Putnam Aids in the Relief, 47 

Governor Clinton to the Committee op Safety, 47 

St. Leger's Own Narrative, 48 

British Authority on the Importance of St. Leger's Expedition, 51 
Governor Clinton on the Battle of Oriskany and the Tryon 

County Militia, 52 

The Mohawk Valley at Saratoga, 53 

Council of Safety to John Hancock, 54 

The British Account of the Affair, 54 

St. Leger's Boast and Confidence, 58 

Bennington Counted before Oriskany in Time, 58 

Colonel Claus' Letter to Secretary Knox at London, 58 

The Roster of Oriskany, 63 



i^^n^a^^A^AA^^^ 1 









. r> '■ ' '' r\ /- 



f • -a 2 : rv * - f * * 















MPWP 



&l"A^&ft* 



O > /-N A - 



^fe 









mav. 



m0w&? 






' > m rs r\ ' 



%&*£&&*,$*'?*' ft 






* i« * 



: ; i - :m .■■'-'• n r 









.AZ^V 



V.Oaaa-W' 



;fl>i<* ^aO'Aa^hV'TC 









S^A* 



;aA/^a^ 



lil&MI^ 









■'M-vr-v m 



i/^f <*\A ,-. "^AA 



. ^aOaa 2 _ R ££a£ Rf$ P sfvn 



&A/A ' 



- £s* 2 ? 



'^4i 






'.'Ca\ A 









A.' ^'^~AfVO/S, 















"Mi 



aA/^aV 



A ^ 
1(0 A, ^ ''"' ^ A a -a' ' ; 

^A,A^ A :-^^A A A} 






MCJfti 



< ^* a A * v?i"¥ A'aA'aA a I A a' 



M$&$ 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



011 800 345 7 





